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Chapter Four. Above the Clouds |
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fine of a mithan; role of mithan in Naga culture |
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The mithan or gayal which plays so important a role among the Nagas is a species of cattle, black-brown in colour with white stockings and sometimes a white mark on the forehead. In the Dafla and Abor country you find piebald and even entirely white mithan, but I have never seen such an animal in the Naga Hills. Like the Nagas' buffaloes, the mithan wander about the jungle in a half-wild condition, their owners feeding them only occasionally with salt. Neither mithan nor buffaloes were milked or in any way used for work, and however well-stocked a Naga village was with cattle, you could not get a drop of milk. Indeed when I brought a cow and her calf from the plains, the Konyaks expressed the greatest (44) horror at the idea of drinking an animal's milk. |
