| caption: |
punishment of villages across the Dikhu river |
| caption: |
Relations with Tributary States and Frontier Affairs |
| caption: |
Massacres at Mongsemdi and Lungkung |
| text: |
On the retirement of the force engaged in the above-mentioned punitive expedition, all remained quiet in the Ao country for about two months; but during that time threats of revenge on the part of Noksen and Litam, which were not thought to be seriously meant, were reported to the Deputy-Commissioner by the Revd. Mr. Clark, of the American Mission. It was not then realized to what a comparatively-speaking formidable community these villages belonged. Nothing had hitherto been known of this tribe, the Mazungar or Mazungs, whose chief village, Mazung-Jami, lies beyond the surveyed part of the hills at the sources of the Yangnu river, two or three marches from Noksen. The news therefore of two savage raids, more destructive almost than any recorded in Naga history, carried out by the combined strength of the Mazung tribe on the Ao villages of Mongsemdi and Lungkung, which was received at the end of July, came as a surprise. Mongsemdi, a village of 300 houses, was attacked on the afternoon of 16th June, the greater part of it was burnt and 148 persons, most women and children, were massacred. At daybreak on the 23rd June. Lungkung met with a similar fate, 40 persons, about one-fifth of the population, being killed and the village totally destroyed. In response to the appeals of Mongsemdi, further attacks on which were threatened, and of Susu, a neighbouring village which was also menaced, the Chief Commissioner accorded his sanction to the posting of a guard of 50 men at Mongsemdi. This was successfully effected during the month of August, a force of 50 men provisioned for 3 months being posted in a strong stockade in that village by the Deputy-Commissioner. A night-attack shortly afterwards attempted on the village by a large Mazung force was repulsed by a picket of the guard, with a loss to the former of two men killed and a large number wounded. |
