Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6.27
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6.27
- Language
- German
c48.s6.27.1
§ 96. (e) **The Nāgā tribes** (162,800). This name is applied by the outside world of Assam to a collection of tribes occupying a considerable hilly region between Maṇipur and the south bank of the Brahmaputra. The communities themselves know of no general title, and their tribal designations are seldom those by which they are called by their neighbours. A large amount of information about them has been collected in connection with the Ethnographic Survey, and until this is given to the world, no adequate account of them is available. It is probable that they reached their present locality from two directions. One branch came down from the north-east, whilst a later section doubled back northwards, after having spent some time alongside of the Kuki and other tribes, to the south. The largest tribe, as far as is at present known, is the Angāmī, called Tengima by its own members. It is settled along the western ranges of the hills, and is one of the communities said to have come from the south. The Tengima reside in unusually large villages, some containing as many as 800 houses. The villages are set upon a hill, and carefully stockaded and guarded against attack. The unit of the tribe is not, however, the village, but a subdivision of the population thus concentrated, called Khel or Tēpfu, exogamous, and said to be derived from a single ancestor. Faction-fights between these bodies are frequent and used to be bloody, as outside aid was called in to take part.
c48.s6.27.2
The large size of their villages is probably the result of their adoption, apparently from the Maṇipurī, of the system of permanent cultivation by irrigated channels, carried with extraordinary skill and labour round the slopes of the hills. They have the usual vague tribal belief in a supreme god and a future state, though they have not formulated their notions of what happens to the soul when it leaves the body. Their worship is devoted to the propitiation of the spirits of nature, who inhabit pools, trees and rocks, and cause illnesses. The beginning and the end of harvest are celebrated, as in the valley, with elaborate festivals. The Āo Nāgā tribe came from the north, and is settled to the north-east of the hills. The men are inferior to the Tengima in physique and in their way of life, but their buildings and villages are, if anything, superior. Beyond a few special tribal customs, the two tribes have much the same beliefs and practices. The Āo are really two communities, the Cūngli and Mongsen, which speak different dialects and intermarry, each having its own exogamous sub-sections. The enslavement of members of neighbouring tribes used to be a regular custom, now, of course more or less suppressed. The victims were treated well, except when paid over as fine or ransom to another village, when they were usually sacrificed. The villages, though nominally governed by a headman, are in practice independent democratic units.
c48.s6.27.3
The Sema, or Sima, village, on the contrary, under the adjacent tribe, has a hereditary headman, or Chief, endowed with considerable authority and privileges. This tribe came from the south east, near Kōhima, and has occupied a considerable tract round its present settlement. The Sima are more akin to the Tengima than to any other of the local tribes, but are distinguished even among the Nāgā, for their barbarism and ferocity. They used to prey upon the lands of the Āo, but having been headed off under British control, they are spreading eastwards, over a wilder country. The Lhōta, in contradistinction to the Sima, are a quiet and industrious people, though they adhere to the old method of cultivating on burnt patches of jungle. They manage, nevertheless, to grow a good deal of cotton, which they convey themselves to the river for sale. In habits they resemble the Rengma, their neighbours. A section of the latter, being evilly entreated by other tribes, sought the lower hills, east of the Mikir, where they alone of all the Nāgā have taken to something approaching the life of the population of the plains. As to the large number of tribes in this group which live in the interior and south of the hills, little information beyond their titles is at present available.