Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6.27.2

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.