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Chapter Twenty-seven. Return to Nagaland |
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visit to Shiong, much modernization |
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Another familiar village where modernization had made further progress than in Wakching was Shiong. During my earlier stay I had spent many hours in the house of Ahon, the knowledgeable dobashi to whom I owed much of my information on the Ang families of Chui and Mon. His house stood still in the same place, and in front of it a memorial slab with an English inscription had been erected. His son, an emaciated man of about fifty, and his grandson Henphong welcomed me warmly. The latter was dressed in shirt and trousers and wore spectacles. He told me that he was in business as a contractor, and from his appearance it did not seem that he ever did any manual work. But his young and attractive wife was carrying water like other Naga women, and presumably worked on the family's fields. She and the other younger women were dressed in cotton skirts and blouses, while the old women had retained their traditional scanty dress. The tattooing of men's faces is a thing of the past, but several middle-aged men still have the full head-hunter's face tattoo and one of them told me that he too gained the right to such a tattoo by his participation in the rites which had followed my arrival with some of the Pangsha heads. |
