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Chapter Fourteen. The Rescued Slaves |
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skulls at Chingmei and huge rainbow-shaped funeral monument |
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(122) When Chingmak had visited Mokokchung, Mills had treated him with great consideration and now he showed us proudly over every inch of Chingmei. He took us first to the morung, where he pointed out the skull of a famous Panso warrior, the captor of fifty heads. There were many other skulls, some bleached and old and some apparently new, hanging in t he morung. In fact, it was quite a remarkable collection, for on many of them buffalo and mithan horns were fastened, thus increasing their magical power and furthering the "virtue" of the whole village. Chingmak showed us a peculiar funeral monument that had been erected in the village. It was a huge crescent of plaited bamboo, representing a rainbow, raised several feet off the ground, and staked with wooden forked posts, which Chingmak explained were tallies for the buffalo and mithan sacrifices performed by the deceased. |
