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to Tuensang; alder seeds taken from Angfang on a raid; description of the Bilaeshi khel; ringing a hill by holding hands; quarrel with Tobu; Angfang's trade in cowries brought in from Burma; log-drums; corpse machans; buffalo horns - fertility symbol; stone phallus; sexually explicit carvings; wooden hornbills |
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10th. 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 river. |
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Tuensang received us very well, and Yali, Longtang, Naksho, Hak, Phampak, Logong and Chingmirem, all Chang villages, sent in men with salaamis. Chingmak of Chingmei (Pl. 14, fig. 7) also turned up. We found an excellent camp cleared and fenced all ready, thanks to Mongko of the Bilaeshi khel, who was an interpreter in Mokokchung for a time when I was Sub-Divisional officer. Alders are grown 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 houses 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 Chongpho 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 was started by Tobu and the other villages 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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Angfang is noted for its trade in cowries, which are there rubbed down to a rectangular shape, so as to lie flat on the cloth, as is done at Khonoma in the Angami country. The untreated cowries are said to reach Angfang from the Burma side. That village was visited by us in April 1923. Drum-logs are kept in the Tuensang 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 too, I noticed a rough stone phallus tied to the front post of a house. [SKETCH |
