The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

manuscript Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf notebook three

caption:

gods and spirits of various villages; Ao and Konyak

medium:

notes

ethnicgroup:

Konyak Ao

date:

26.8.1936

production:

person:	Furer-Haimendorf
date:	8.1936-6.1937

acquirer:

person:

School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London

text:

(163) 26/8/1936

text:

Informant: schoolmaster
_____________Ao_______________________Konyak
_Tsungrem__________________Wangtang_ghagang_(who_lives_in_ the
___________________________sky_identical_with_Ghawang)
_amung_tsunger_____________shong-ga-gong_(Tamlu)
_earth_deity_______________Dzongshebei_(Tamlu)
___________________________Gashi yongngan (Wakching)

text:

Gashi is not a spirit but a "bad place" Gashi yong ngan - spirit of a bad place, there is only one. Shaba (Shiong) means apparently just spirit.

text:

Ghawang (Wakching) and Ghagang (Tamlu) made the earth, men and animals. "He knows everything" - some people (164) wish to get much crops or many chickens, but if Ghawang does want they don't get them. When a man steals and swears a false oath he dies, because he swears in the name of Ghawang and Gashi.

text:

Additional informant: Ahon.

text:

There is a mysterious being (Shiong) (sha-niu - tiger) shaba - they can't say where it lives or how it is.
___________Ao____________________Konyak
_Kitsung_(house_spirit)________Kitsing (Tamlu)

text:

In Tamlu the Kitsing genna is made at time of illness by the (165) men of Noklang clan. The Noklang clan elder goes to the house and kills a pig and says a long formula (which the schoolmaster does not know) & gets one leg and the head. The genna maker goes to the []

text:

Him-gim-bu (house genna) (Shiong) is approximately the same genna.
___________Ao____________________Konyak
_Kiming_tsungrem_______________sham_(house)_Ghagang_(Tamlu )
_Kotaki________________________Gha-gang_dzing_(village)_(T amlu)
_aonglamla_(jungle_spirit)_____Shiniak-mi-ha_(parent-less) _(Tamlu)
_______________________________man-dzang-tunglong (Wakching)

text:

there are many of these, men and women, they are of pygmy stature and follow the traces of elephants, tigers and wild pigs. If a man sees them he will die. Sometimes one only hears their laughing. One can see their foot-steps (the schoolmaster has seen some!) which are reverse, as the Man-dzang-tunglong have their heels (167) in front and the toes behind. They keep the wild pigs as their domestic animals, - so when a hunter comes they drive the pigs away.

text:

Once when there was an outpost at Tamlu a soldier went hunting and met a deer with 12 points and he shot from one side of the Dikhu to the other. The deer died but the hunter died himself on the spot. They say that the Shiniak-mi-ha killed him. When a man has killed some game he must make a sign into the skin with his dao, otherwise the Shiniak-mi-ha will make the animal alive again. (168)
__________Ao________________________Konyak
_tanela_(soul)_______________shiniak_langha_(Tamlu)
_____________________________ya-ha_(Wakching)

text:

When a man sleeps his shiniak langha may wander about, then the earth spirit, Dzong-ga-gang (Gashi) may catch the soul and a sacrifice is necessary to release it.
_________Ao_________________________Konyak
__Tiya______________________________ngan_(Tamlu)
________________________________nang-shoi_(Wakching)
_____________________________(means apparently only "luck")

text:

The shiniak langha is in the body of the man (somewhere in the breast or belly), the ngan is in the forehead.

text:

The Wakching people believe (169) apparently that a man had three or four ya-has. The Tamlu people say that [there] are three - the soul of the living man, the soul of the dead man and the man's shadow.

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