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Fine view from Helipong, highest known Naga village; crops; new head-taking symbolism |
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To Helipong (sq.58) - 8 miles. Half a gale had given everyone a disturbed night, but we all got away cheerfully at 7.30. The path at first was through Job's tears jhums, which could not have been less steep than one in one. After going up and down four or five shoulders we had a climb of some 3500 feet, some of it as steep as a path could possibly be. The last hour was through evergreen forest, in mist and rain. Helipong is the highest Naga village I know of, well over 7000 feet and bitterly cold. It is a small Chang outpost of some 20 houses, refounded about eight years ago by permission of Sotokurr, a Yimsungr village. They have no rice, and their millet and Job's tears do not always ripen. The view is beyond description. It cleared as soon as we got in, and we could see from the Burma boundary to the plains and from the Konyak country to that of the Southern Sangtams. |
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Cheshorr, Sotokurr, Sibung, Ngampungchi, and Yimtsung-angrr sent deputations in. One Cheshorr chief, with superb broad- mindedness, had had the back of his Government red cloth embroidered with the figure of a man in cowries to denote his prowess as a headhunter. |
