| caption: |
Chapter One. The Material Background |
| caption: |
views to east and south; hostile territory |
| text: |
Eastward and southward of Wakching, a vast tangle of hills extended as far as the Burmese border. But while the villagers' eyes could range over this wide expanse of wooded mountains and cultivated hill slopes, the area within which they could safely travel was strictly limited. Even old men had never entered some of the villages clearly visible on distant ridges, for so precarious was personal security in Naga society that no one dared travel to places where he had neither friends nor kinsmen. Only in the neighboring villages of Wanching and Chingtang did the Wakching people feel entirely at home. Here they were among friends, speaking the same language, wearing similar dress and ornaments, and living in houses of exactly the same type. While Wakching and Wanching were of approximately equal size and politically independent of each other, Chingtang, situated on a lower ridge, was a much smaller village and tributary to both of its more powerful neighbors. |
