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Visit to the new chief of Kukishe; description of his house and his father's grave |
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The Yezashimi coolies failed to turn out properly, so to cause them to eat shame and hurry up I picked up joppa that had a headstrap of its own and started up to the village saying that I should claim a mithan as pay if I were not relieved before. I refused relief till all the loads were taken and then handed it over to the last coolie just outside the village. It had the effect of hurrying them up all right. |
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I heard, on the way up to the top of Yimtsung, throwing-sticks, attached by a line and so recovered after being thrown, and used in village riots. Also that a Sema's hair turns grey if he enter a porcupine's hole. |
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We halted at Kosanasami, alias Khetoi, alias Nikelho, at the top of the ridge and I called in on the chief to drink hot zu after my drink. They had some heads taken from Chimi, in the atsukoghothoba, and this village also was fenced like Shothumi but more elaborately with an inner fence of sharpened "ekra" inside the outer one of trees and stakes. I saw no panjis. From Kosanasami we went down the western slope of the range to Kukishe. Nikhui, the old chief, died about a month ago and his son, Nivi, who is no less of a blackguard, reigns in his stead. We went to his house, which contains some fine furniture of his own making - a chest to contain ornaments and valuables cut out of one piece of wood about 9 feet long by 3 feet broad and deep and with handles to pull it by left projecting from one end in the same piece. He had also a chair with six legs and a back to it all cut from a piece, and he had cut a hole in the seat to make it more comfortable. Outside was a round stone grave built in the Angami fashion (a copy from the Angami according to Nivi) which held the remains of Nikhui. In the Angami country these round graves are usually cenotaphs not tombs, but this Sema copy, as in the case of the one at Vekohomi, is an actual tomb. The other graves in Kukishe were also unlike the usual Sema grave, and were built rectangular with woven bamboo sides and a flat top made of unsplit sections of bamboo. In Nivi's house I picked up another form of hand-arrow, used by boys who have not yet learned to use a spear. It was of bamboo smoke-hardened, and with a tuft of chicken feathers at the butt. I also noticed a woman wearing a conch shell at the back of the neck in the style followed by Angami males. |
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We camped in the Tizu valley below Yemeshe and at the point where the path from Kukishe divides to go to Kiyakhu southwards and Yemeshe northwards, a very pleasant spot and a good camping ground. |
