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Chapter one. The Beginning |
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(1) In the extreme north-east corner of India the long inlet of the Brahmaputra Valley cuts back deeply into the ranges running down from Tibet and the Roof of the World. The warm, green, thickly-populated valley floor forms one part of the Indian province of Assam, and the surrounding hill-tracts and their variety of tribes make up the rest. On the north side of the valley are Monbas, Akas, Daflas, Miris, Apa Tanis and Abors and other groups yet unclassified or never seen by a foreign eye, for the hinterland along the foot of the Great Himalayan Range is still unexplored for a good part of its length. On the southern bank a stretch of mountain country - a long skein of parallel ranges - runs down between India and Burma, and in the upper half of this live the more or less Mongolian tribes known as the Nagas and Kukis. I say " more or less Mongolian ", for nobody yet knows all the strains and races which have con-tributed to their make-up nor what eddies of migration brought them there. The Kukis lie to the south with the Lushais and Chins below them, the Nagas are to the north, and there is a belt in the middle where the two overlap. |
