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Birds' nests and looking glasses at Gobin morung; stone cairns, dolmen and celts |
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To Bolasan via Gobin and Muchidui, about 12 miles. All Nzemi villages, though the Naga Hills people call them Nruongmai. At Gobin I saw the fans stuck in the roof inside the morung to afford building places for the swallows and house-martins who make their homes therein. I also observed for the first time the looking glasses used by the morung bucks consisting of a trough of water with a high back placed under a window so as to keep the light off the water and afford an excellent reflection for Narcissus to tire his head in. On the way to Muchidui the open grassy saddle along which the path ran was sprinkled with artificial mounds in lines strongly suggestive of the Jaintia Hills. I fancy they contained the remnants of stone cairns, and there were hollows perhaps dug on purpose to contain water. In Muchidui was one of the finest burial dolmens that I have seen in these hills. It contained the mortal remains of one Heoding whose son, a very old man, still lives in the village. I got a small celt here and two more from Indunglo, at least one of which seemed to have been scraped for medicine. |
