TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 801 



savages briefly summarised iu a table shows that the savage believes that there is 

 some hiddeu link which binds the new-born child to its father. Many curious 

 beliefs are met with among the uncivilised showing similar belief in occult links or 

 bonds or lines of force. These forms of belief are usually described under the 

 general heading of loitchcraft. Similarly in the custom of couvade the action of 

 the father is to avoid bewitching his child, so that the custom, if not wholly an 

 explanation of the change of mother right to father right, may be in effect an 

 example of an aberrant form of reasoning. 



4. On the ' Morong ' and other Customs of the Natives of Assam. 

 By S. B. Peal. 



The author shows that the institution of the ' Morong,' or club-house for the 

 unmarried of both sexes, is very widely distributed over the whole of the Indo- 

 Pacitic region ; and he argues that it is in fact a relic of pre-marriage communism. 

 But this custom being so often found associated with others of a distinctly non- 

 Aryan character, such as juming, tattooing, blackening the teeth, building on piles, 

 head-hunting, &c., has led the author to suspect former racial affinity, even among 

 such widely distinct types as Papuan and Mongol, Dravidian and Sawaiori. 



1. The artificial blackening of the teeth is a fashion common amongst the Indo- 

 Mongoloids and Bengalese ; and there can be little doubt that the custom in some 

 way preserves the teeth from decay. 



2. The dislike of milk among the races bordering Assam is very general, possibly 

 almost universal. 



'3. The extension of the ear-lobes, by large plugs of various sorts, is a well- 

 known custom of all these races. The Miribelles have the largest ear-plugs of any 

 tribes in or about Assam ; they are made of silver, and not unlike napkin rings, 2 or 

 2^ inches in diameter by 1 inch in depth, the outside being closed by a large 

 chased disc. The extended lobe passes round the ring in a wide shallow groove, 

 like a band of vulcanised rubber. 



r 4. Numeral affixes are found in Assam, as among the Malays. 



■ 5. Head hunting seems to be slowly dying out amongst the most eastern Nogas, 

 and to the west of Dikhu River ; but in most Noga tribes the young men cannot 

 be tattooed until they have got or actively assisted in getting a head, hands, or 

 feet of some Noga, not of their own or of a friendly tribe. 



6. Tattooing in some tribes is on the face, in others on the body, and it is in 

 some way a record of the numbers killed. 



7. Platform burial is general amongst the Nogas of East Assam for men and 

 adult women ; it also prevails in Formosa, New Guinea, Borneo, Solomon Islands, 

 New Britain, and amongst Lushais. 



8. Communal houses of great length, 100 and 200 feet, are common in and 

 around Assam ; similar houses are found among the Dyaks of Borneo over 500 feet 

 in length. 



9. Barracks for the unmarried young men, and occasionally also for girls, are 

 common in and around Assam, among non-Aryan races. The institution is here 

 seen in various stages of decline or transition. In the case of ' head hunters ' the 

 young men's barracks are invariably ffiuirdhouses at the entrances to the village, 

 and those on guard day and night keep tally of the men who leave or return. 

 They are also guest and council houses ; they contain skull trophies and the large 

 war drums, In all cases there seem to be old and peculiar laws attaching to them, 

 and in many instances they issue orders to the village. All these houses are 

 strictly tabu to married women. 



10. Pile dwellings are a leading feature among most of the hill races about 

 Assam, and the custom extends all down the peninsula, and throughout the 

 archipelago, to the Solomon Islands in the south and Formosa in the north. The 

 pattern of these pile dwellings no doubt varies greatlj , but there is a unity in the 

 general plan which cannot be accidental. 



11. The peculiar doulle-cy Under bellows, common in Burmah, Sumatra, Java, 

 Madagascar, and the Philippines, is also used in and around Eastern Assam. 



1891. 8 F 



