| caption: |
ornaments; men naked until married |
| text: |
These Nagas are very skilful in devising little adornments from palm-leaves, making coronets, wristbands, and anklets of them. A curious custom prevails at a village called Voka, and probably also among the neighbouring villages: it is this - that till a young man is married he goes perfectly naked, but he at once adopts a waist cloth when he takes a wife. Every man carries about with him a small basket, a bag for his food, pan, &c. At one village every man carried against his apron a small bamboo cup full of live embers of sago palm bark placed in a layer of sand. This was for the purpose of supplying a pipe-light at any time, I was told. The weather was warm, so that it was not to supply heat to their bodies, as is done in a similar way in Cashmere in cold weather. |
