22 S. E. Peal— Beport on a visit to the [No. 1, 



measured a mclcai sapling which was 10 inches diameter at foot and 5 

 inches diameter at the first branch, 60 feet from the ground. 



It was a lovely morning, and, excepting for one or two bad falls, we 

 got down to our old camp easily and quickly, finding three Tkak Nagas there. 

 At dusk we heard a barking-deer not far off, a Naga took his gun and 

 quietly disappeared, a loud report soon after told us he had succeeded, 

 though, being dark, he could not trace it ; by dawn, however, he was out 

 and returned with it on his shoulders. I gave him some beads for a leg. 

 These men knew the country pretty well, and had cut rubber on the Upper 

 Loglai. They said large numbers of Nagas from our side go east on the 

 side of Burma, taking food for twenty days, and in parties of thirty and 

 forty or more. It is a large tract of country, and totally uninhabited. 



After breakfast, about 9 A. m., we all started on together up the Nam- 

 bong, thence over the undulating forest land and low hills, jkums, &c. 

 One of the Nagas we dropped at the first Tkak Naga village, and soon 

 reached the one we had camped in at night, where we rested an hour and 

 waited for the guide, who had loitered behind. In the jhum close by I 

 observed each person's little store-house of yams, chillies, pumpkins, &c. 

 quite open and exposed, often without doors, yet I was told on all sides that 

 the contents were quite safe. So close to the path were the things, and so 

 very tempting, that I had to collect and warn my people against innocently 

 supposing they might stoop and take what they saw, or there might have 

 been no small row. While resting in the Tkak village, a Naga woman came 

 and presented me with a large basket of moad, or rice-beer, which, after 

 tasting; I passed round ; it was not so good as that of the Nagas living 

 west near me. Like the Singplms, these people make very neat wicker- 

 work baskets, and line or plaster them with rubber-juice, so as to be not 

 only water but spirit-proof. They also make pretty bamboo mugs, with 

 two handles in loops, some of them absurdly like Dr. Schliemann's early 

 Greek pottery. 



When the guide joined, we went on and climbed another 500 or 600 

 feet to the Upper Sonkap village of some ten or twelve houses. Several 

 women and big girls at once, and without a word from us, brought out and 

 handed over bundles of firewood for nothing. It was done so quietly that 

 I take it to be a regular custom, and one form of welcome. Water, 

 however, was at a premium. Some for present purposes was given us in 

 huge bamboo vessels, but I had to get the Naga boys and girls to bring 

 more at a pice per tube. Even then, there was a short allowance, till the 

 spring filled, or they found a lower one next day. I went to see it, and 

 how they managed to get down and up in the dark surprised me. The 

 want of water has a perceptible effect on the complexions of these people, — 

 the older women seem especially partial to charcoal dust and ashes. 



