XXI ETHNOLOGY OF BORNEO 241 



Nagas, and especially the Kuki Nagas, who are said 

 to be most nearly allied to the Karens, beside a 

 number of the culture elements which we have 

 noticed above as common to Karens and Kayans, 

 other noteworthy points of resemblance to the 

 Kayans are the following : A system of tabu ox genua 

 which may affect individuals or whole villages, and 

 is very similar to the malan of the Kayans ; the 

 practice of ornamenting houses with heads of 

 enemies, the motive of taking the head being to 

 provide a slave in Hades for a deceased chief; 

 the use of human and other hair in decorating 

 weapons.^ 



Their method of attacking a village is like that of 

 the Kayans, namely, to surround it in the night and 

 to rush it at dawn ; they obstruct the approach of an 

 enemy to their village by planting in the ground 

 short pieces of bamboo sharpened and fire-hardened 

 at both ends ; they use an oblong wooden shield or 

 a rounded shield of plaited cane ; their blacksmiths 

 use a bellows very like that of the Kayan smiths ; 

 they husk their padi in a solid wooden mortar with 

 a big pestle a la Kayan ; they floor their houses 

 with similar massive planks ; they catch fish in nets 

 and traps, and by poisoning the water ; men pierce 

 the shell of the ear in various ways ; omens are read 

 from the viscera of pigs, and the cries of some birds 

 are unlucky ; they worship a Supreme Deity and a 

 number of minor gods, e.g, gods of rain and of 

 harvest ; they often sacrifice pigs and fowls to 



^ It is worthy of note that the Kayans have long used and highly prize 

 for the decoration of their swords the hair of the Tibetan goat dyed a dark red, 

 and have continued to obtain this hair at a great price from Malay and Chinese 

 traders. The wild tribes of the Chin hills, said to be closely akin to the Kukis, 

 adorn their shields with tassels of goat's hair dyed red (see The Chin Hills, 

 by B. S. Carey and H. N. Tuck, Rangoon, 1896). According to the same 

 authorities, these Chins are inveterate head-hunters. They read omens in the 

 livers of pigs and other beasts, and in the cries of birds ; they wear a loin- 

 cloth like the Kayan Bah ; they scare pests from their padi fields by means 

 of an apparatus like that used by Kayans (vol. i. p. 102) ; they floor their houses 

 with huge planks hewn out with an adze very similar to the Kayan adze. 



