9. The Hill tribes, with some reservations as regards the Kukis, gave little trouble during the year. One murder of the head-taking type was committed by a party of Kukis in the hills west of the valley, and one or two minor outrages in the southern hills are also to be put down to the same tribe. No organised raids, however, occurred, and no serious inter-tribal disturbances of any kind involving villages within Manipur territory were reported from any of our frontiers.
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A very satisfactory feature was the entire absence throughout the year of crimes of violence on the public roads, as well on the Kohima cart-road as on the other main lines of communication in the state. The sharp lesson read the large villages near Mao thana last year in connection with the murders on the cart-road has apparently had a salutary effect.
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The case of head-taking above referred to occurred in February, the victim being a young Kabui Naga girl of Hauchong village, who was cruelly murdered by a band of four Kukis, the identity of whom strict enquiry has as yet failed to discover. The girl was on a journey to the Manipur valley, accompanied by an uncle, when they were suddenly attacked by a party of four Kukis, while resting by a stream. The man made good his escape, but the girl was overtaken and killed, her head being carried off. No reliable clie to the village of the murderers has as yet been found.
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Of ordinary crime attended b loss of life, two cases only were reported from the hill tracts during the year. Two Tangkhuls of Phungtarr, a small hamlet of four houses, were charged by a fellow-villager with the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of himself, the weapons used being spears. The case was not reported until two months after its alleged occurrence, and owing to this circumstance, and to the lack of independent evidence as to the facts of the case among so small a community, the charge of murder was found not proven at the trial of the two men held after the close of the year.
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In another case a Kabui Naga from Kandihang village, on the Cachar frontier was charged with the murder of a fellow-villager by shooting him with a gun. The man was tried after the close of the year. Proof being given that the deceased had violated the wife of the accused, the latter, in view of this provocation, was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder only, and was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment.
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In the case of the murder of a Bengali on the Kohima cart-road noticed in paragraph 9 of the report for 1896-97, a Naga named Loli was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death, but the conviction was subsequently reversed by the Chief Commissioner.
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Impressed labour, supplied by the hillmen, was, as usual furnished extensively to the Public Works Department, mainly for the carriage of lime from Ukhrul in the Tangkhul hills and for work on the Kohima cart-road.
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A sum of Rs. 4,614 was realised in fines from hill villages, against Rs. 4,477 in 1896-97. Of this amount, Rs. 4,118 was levied in connection with th punitive measures taken against the northern villages for outrages committed on the cart-road.
