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expedition in the Tangkhul area |
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In the drought of February, in a pillar of dust, we set out across the dry plain towards Yaingangpokpi and three days later reached Ukhrul. It lay on a long ridge at a height of six thousand feet, the square stone fort to the south, then the straggling Christian settlement, then the S.D.O.'s bungalow, which stood on a shelf on the eastern slope and commanded a superb view of the great peak of Sirohi; and lastly, some way along the ridge to the north, the three-hundred-house Naga village, its street descending in a series of stone-faced platforms, and its tall, bare genna-posts - barked tree-trunks set up to commemorate feasts - standing in clusters against the pale sky. The houses were timber-fronted with massive planks; their shaggy, smoke-blackened porches overhung, and some, the houses of rich men, were partly roofed with wooden shingles and boasted house-horns on the gables. |
