LEOPARD-MEN IN THE NAGA HILLS. 1 



By J. H. Hutton. 



In speaking of leopard-men I should like first of all to make it 

 clear that I have taken the word leopard as the translation of the 

 Naga words, because it is usually the leopard that is associated with 

 Naga lycanthropists. The tiger, however, is also so associated, as 

 well as one or perhaps more of the smaller cats. For all of these 

 animals there is a generic term in most Naga languages, and when a 

 Sema Naga, for instance, speaks of angshu he may mean a leopard or 

 a tiger, between which he makes no clear distinction, or even a 

 smaller animal such as a clouded leopard, or the golden cat. The 

 same applies to the Angami Naga word tehhu. On the other hand, 

 the Chang Nagas have distinct words, and speak of a tiger as saonyu, 

 regarding the leopard, khonkhii, as little less inconsiderable than a 

 civet cat, hhil. 



All Naga tribes seem to regard the ultimate ancestry of man and 

 the tiger (or leopard) as very intimately associated. The Angamis 

 relate that in the beginning the first spirit, the first tiger, and the 

 first man, were three sons of one mother, but whereas the man and 

 the spirit looked after their mother with the greatest tenderness, 

 the tiger was always snarling about the house giving trouble. More- 

 over, he ate his food raw, while the man ate his cooked, and the spirit 

 his smoke-dried. At last the mother got tired of family squabbles, 

 so put up a mark in the jungle and told the man and the tiger to run 

 to it, the one that touched it first being destined to live in villages 

 and the other to live in the forest and jungle. By arrangement be- 

 tween the spirit and the man, the former shot an arrow at the mark, 

 while the other two were racing, and the man cried out that he had 

 touched it. The tiger arrived while it still trembled from the blow, 

 and being deceived, went away angry to live in the jungle. 



After this the man sent the cat to ask the tiger, when he killed a 

 deer, to leave him a leg on the village wall, in virtue of their brother- 

 hood. The cat got the message wrong and told the tiger to leave all 



1 Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, January to June, 1920. 



529 



