| caption: |
chapter one - introduction |
| caption: |
Central Nzemi not much influenced by outsiders, no Christians |
| note: |
footnotes indicated by boxes within square brackets |
| text: |
Up to the year 1946 there were no Nzemi Christians in the Central Nzemi area. Partly because of the difficulty of communications and partly because they fear the malignant malaria with which the surrounding low country is infected, the Central Nzemi travel very little and have only limited contact with people and places outside their immediate area. In 1946 there were in Laisong village 5 able-bodied men between 40 and 50 who had never been to Haflong, the subdivisional headquarters, though this was 30 miles distant and could be reached comfortably in a day and a half. They had been annually to Mahur, a market on (6) the railway-line, but they had never made the additional two or three hours' journey to the larger trading-centre. |
