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Chapter Four. Above the Clouds |
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set off to Tanhai for Mills to try a case; crossed reeds to deter illness |
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Mills was to try a case while he was in the Konyak country. It concerned the taking of heads, and since Konyak villages inside British territory, as well as villages across the border, were involved, Mills had decided to save the people the long march to Wakching and to hold the court at Tanhai. We started early in the morning. The path, soaked by the night's rain, led first through a belt of forest, and then down over slippery steps cut into the ground, (42) and finally through high grass and bush. On the boundary of the Wakching land, we found two crossed reeds blocking the path. The men of Sheangha had set them up. Returning from Wakching two days before, they had thought to foil the following spirits of disease, when they left the land of the infected village, by crawling through the arch. |
