A History of Assam c12.155

c12.155

"And all the people of this country, not placing their necks in the yoke of any faith, eat whatever they get from the hand of any man, regardless of his caste, and undertake every kind of labour that appears proper to their defective sight. They do not abstain from eating food cooked by Muslims and non-Muslims, and partake of every kind of meat, whether of dead or of slaughtered animals, except human flesh. It is not their custom to eat *ghi*, so that if any article even savours of *ghi* they will not eat it. Their language differs entirely from that of all the peoples of Eastern India. Strength and heroism are apparent in the peoples of this country; they are able to undertake hard tasks; all of them are warlike and bloodthirsty, fearless in slaying and being slain, unrivalled in cruelty, treachery and rudeness, unique in the world in deception, lying and breach of faith. The persons of their women are marked by beauty and delicacy of features, blackness and length of hair, softness of body, fairness of complexion and loveliness of hands and feet. From a distance their general appearance looks perfectly beautiful, but disfigured by the absence of proportion in the limbs. When, however, they are looked at close at hand, they are found to be far from beautiful. The wives of the Rajas and peasants alike never veil their faces before anybody, and they move about in the market-places with bare heads. Few of the men have two wives only; most have four or five, and they mutually exchange their wives, or buy and sell them. Adoration among this people takes the form of kneeling down. The peasants who go to the Raja, or the nobles who have audience of him, after bending both the knees, sit down in the kneeling posture, keeping both eyes fixed on the ground. They shave their hair, beard and moustaches. If any of the natives acts contrary to this practice in the least particular, they say that he has adopted the manners of the Bengalis and they cut his head off.