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Description of Tuensang and explanation of the origins of hostilities between Bilaeshi khel and Tobu |
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To Tuensang. There was some delay in getting off, as Kudeh could not give us enough coolies, and they had to come from Tuensang 7 miles away. However, we got off by 8.45. The path was very good and well graded and we reached Tuensang ("Mozungjami") by 11.30, crossing first one of its tributaries and then the Yungyang stream, which is one of the principal sources of the Yangmun. Tuensang received us very well, and Yali, Longtang, Naksho, Hak, Phampak, Logong and Chingmirem, all Chang villages, came in with salamis. Chingmak of Chingmei also turned up. We found an excellent camp cleared and fenced all ready, thanks to Mongko of the Bilaeshi khel, who was a dobashi in Mokokchung for a time when I was Sub-divisional Officer. |
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Alders are growing here and the seed is said to have been obtained from Angfang in a raid. The Bilaeshi khel is a crowded village of about 200 house or more with very narrow streets, the front gables of the houses hanging right across the street alternately from opposite sides. Half of this khel is of the Chongpo clan, and the other half of the Ung, the latter clan being part of a Konyak village which split up after defeat by Tobu, the other half going to Angfang. The quarrel with Tobu started by Tobu and the other village having a contest to see which could ring a hill holding hands all the way round. Tobu's opponents held winnowing fans in-between each man and the next, so that they looked like men at a distance, and doubled the length of the line, a deceitful act which annoyed Tobu, who tried to ring their hill honestly and failed. The enmity between the Bilaeshi khel and Tobu still continues. |
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Wooden drum-legs are kept in the morungs, which, however, do not seem to be used as sleeping places. The corpses of the Ung clan are put on machans with double horned thatching, imitating a pair of buffalo horns, as in Urangkong and in some Konyak villages, I think, where a pair of buffalo horns is a common fertility emblem. Here I noticed a rough stone phallus tied to the front post of a house. When I asked what it was they grinned and would not explain. In one of the Bilaeshi morungs too, I noticed that the heads were hung close to a wooden figure carved to represent a man in a condition of sexual excitement, while a morung in the Kangsho khel had figures of women similarly made. The morungs also had wooden hornbills suspended in flight as at Kudeh. |
