| caption: |
village names; size and description of Manipuri force; large size of Razumi houses |
| note: |
inaccurate spelling in the original text |
| text: |
29th January. Halted at Razami or rather "Zami" as I discovered today it is called by the people themselves, "Razami" being the name it is know by among the Rhezamis. In like manner Gaziphema, Thisami Ripimi I found were all only the Khezami names for those villages which by the inhabitants themselves are called Vapremi, Zallomi and Zemi respectively. |
| text: |
I had a long talk with the Headmen of Razami regarding the Manipuries and their late foray across the border and from all they told me it appears this is the first occasion that the Rajah's troops have ever penetrated so far north and they declare that they are not aware of any cause whatever of quarrel between them. They state that the Force consisted of about 200 Manipuries armed with muskets and about 100 Kookies armed with daos (probably their coolies) accompanied by 4 or 5 hundred Nagas of Semi and Mezemi, two villages said to be situated on the right bank of the Lanier near its head-waters. In the afternoon I walked through the village and visited several of the houses in order to have a chat with the Chiefs, all of whom I found most timid at first and evidently very distrustful of what I was going to do. However after an occasional "liquor up" or two we got quite chummy and I made my inspector Muna Ram go round and count all the houses which he found to be 32. Some of the houses were among the largest I have ever seen, one in particular which Austin and I measured was 50 feet in breadth and some of the boards forming a portion of it were over 5 feet in breadth and carried all over, its inside portion was formed of an open trellis work entirely covered with horns of buffalo, oxen, deer, mithan, etc. |
