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Serious difficulties in obtaining coolies at Tobu; mixed villages |
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Tobu appeared this morning in their true colours. Would they give us coolies? Of course, only too delighted, three to a load to help us along the quicker, but by 8.30 not a coolie had arrived and I took a party up to the village. Here there was a continuous chorus of lolabu lolabu "will come, will come" but not a man started. It was the custom they said to sit in the morung in the mornings till they felt moved to eat rice and then after that they would carry our loads. Threats and imprecations had not the least effect at first though after a time they gradually produced about a quarter of the number wanted, otherwise all the reply was lolabu and no one came. The village meant to go - sometime, and each man hoped his neighbour would go first and he would escape having to carry himself. The "chiefs" have absolutely no authority and their orders had no effect at all, and when I threatened to burn the house of the biggest, he laughed and obviously did not take it seriously. |
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Eventually we shot a big pig and went away. This produced a rush of coolies, but still not enough. Then I started to go back to the village; this was a mistake, as it frightened them and the women and children, till then present in crowds, all bolted and most of the men, so I turned back, but the remaining coolies were quietly produced and we got away at 9.30. |
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It was a long march, steeply up hill most of the way, and the Tobu coolies, who had eaten no breakfast were many of them physically unable to carry. Most of the dobashis and gaonburas with us had to carry a load for part of the way, but in the end we got to Chingmei about 5.0pm, very tired. I reckoned the distance at 16 miles, but it was a very tiring 16 miles for everyone. |
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On the way we passed the deserted site of the village of Ungpang, which split up generations ago into two parts, one going to form the Hawang clan of the Changs, the other the Konyak village of Angfang. We crossed the tila at Waoshu which must be 8000 feet up or very near it indeed, a rather dismal-looking village of scattered houses with the dejected look that always seems to go with villages at a great height. The inhabitants are very mixed Chang and Konyak. |
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I was very disappointed with the view from Chingmei. By the map we should have been across the main range between Assam and Burma, but the mapping is wrong and this side of the range does not drain into the Namzalein as indicated but into the Zungki and so to the Ti-Ho. Between us and the Namzalein there seem to be two more ranges, the furthest of which seems to be joined on to the Saramati range and to form the Namzalein-Ti-Ho watershed, though I fancy it is not actually so high as the range we crossed. |
