| caption: |
Relations with Tributary States and Frontier Affairs |
| caption: |
behaviour of hill tribes (from report by Lt. Col. H. St P. Maxwell, Political Agent in Manipur and Superintendant of the State |
| text: |
4. The hill tribes in Manipur territory behaved well throughout the year. In most cases of disputes the people have come to Manipur, and only a few instances have occurred in which inter-village quarrels were settled with sticks and stones. In villages where firewood is scarce, a collection is made during the cold season, and stacked outside each house; when a dispute on any subject arises, unless a man of authority happens to be near to nip the quarrel in the bud, these handy missiles are used to quiet the spleen. Women and children at once take shelter inside the houses, and the men's heads being hard, meet the contact with the wood with little damage, and after a stormy quarter of an hour peace again follows. On visiting one of these villages later on, the combatants laugh and admit they acted foolishly, and pray for no further action to be taken.... |
| text: |
In November two Nepali traders were found murdered near the roadside between Makhel and Maitapham stages of Manipur-Kohima bridle-path. They had four ponies with them, and encamped for the night close to some rice fields of Makhel village. It is supposed probable that the traders either cut some o the growing paddy for the ponies, or permitted the animals to graze in the crops, which the Nagas resented, and which resulted in the Nepalis being murdered in their sleep. At first, the friends of the deceased suspected some Pathans working on the cart road, some 600 feet above the bridle path, but that was simply because these men bear a bad character; robbery was not the reason of the murder, for the money brought by the deceased from Kohima was found intact on their persons, and Pathans would scarcely kill two sleeping travellers for the sake of killing only. The working party were watched for some time, but the suspicion against the Pathans was not strengthened. As the murder was committed on land belonging to Makhel and near the cultivation where men were on watch that night, the village was called upon to surrender the murderers, and in default a guard of one subadar and 24 men of the Manipur Police was quartered in the village until further orders. That Nagas were concerned in this murder is corroborated by an occurence in February, and not far from the same spot. Two Hindustani travellers were attacked in broad daylight by two Nagas; one of the travellers managed to escape uninjured, but the other was badly hacked and left on the ground for dead; he, however, was carried into Manipur, and eventually recovered. A clue was now given to the Nagas, and they all seemed to suspect a Naga of Tongam Arunepfemi, who had for some time shown symptoms of madness, and had been living the life of an outcaste. Though many search parties were organised, he had not been captured by the end of the year. |
| text: |
Altogether a sum of Rs. 2,757 was realised from Naga villages as fines for misbehaviour during the year, of which Rs. 1,000 were recovered from the large village of Purum for harassing smaller villages. Such treatment of weaker by stronger villages was not discouraged in the time of the late Darbar, and the Purum Nagas were only checked from committing a third offence by the Assistant to the Political Agent, who was touring near the locality, threatening to destroy the village. |
