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New Nepali settlement; Kigema village door and rituals involved in its construction |
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Tour Diary for the month of December 1922. |
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To Kigwema. On the way I noticed a Nepali settlement growing up at a new place between the Mauzadar's house and Khasiaparao on the right hand side of the road. There seemed to be at least two houses and a lot of people living there. |
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Sub Inspector of Police will please make enquiries as to who they are, whether they have passes to live in that place and how they got there and to whom the land belongs, and report to me. |
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Kigwema has one of the finest doors in the Angami country, probably the finest. The tree from which her village door is made may not be used for anything else, so the remainder of the tree, which has to be a huge one is wasted entirely. It cannot be made into okulis as women would then have to mount on it to pound, and this would be equivalent to a woman's mounting on the village door which is kenna, of course. The door is cut in the rough at the spot where the tree is felled, and finished off at the village. A chicken is released where the tree is felled and a bull killed when the door is dragged to the village. |
