The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

typescript - J.H. Hutton's tour diary in the Naga Hills

caption: witchcraft in Losama
medium: tours
location: Phek (Phekrokejuma) Sampurre (Thachumi) Losama
date: 4.3.1922
production:
person: Hutton/ J.H.
date: 1.3.1922-23.3.1922
acquirer:
person: Pitt Rivers Museum Archive, Oxford
refnum: Hutton Ms. Box 2
text: 4th
text: Doubled again to Phekrokejuma. Sohemi, Phekrokejuma and other Gaonburas came in to try and induce me to take them to THACHUMI but I refused. I heard, as usual, of new witchcrafts in Losama. This time it is familiar in the form of worm, caterpillar or maggot which seems to be a speciality of Losama. If a man takes chilis etc. from a field a worm is applied to the plant and as it eats it the man dies. If the worms are applied to a man's dung (on Losama land) he dies as the worms devour it.
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