16 S. E. Veol— Notes of a trip up tJie Bihing. [No. 1, 



them wore the peculiar little narrow slip of cloth tied tightly between the 

 legs, that keeps the testacies in the abdomen, and which is common among 

 the Sonkap, Namtzik, and Tirap Nagas. We soon reached Jagon a small 

 Singphu village and as it was our last village for some days and I had to 

 get opium from the Kyah there, we camped just above it. Here I noticed 

 many mounds, bamboo clumps and some trees, that the inhabitants who 

 were Singphus, declared must have been remains of Ahoms in former days. 

 I also saw and sketched here, a " Gabru Morong" or house in which all 

 the single girls of the village sleep. All through these hills north, east, 

 and south, the various tribes have a peculiar custom in common, and under 

 various local names. It is that the single folks (generally the lads) have 

 to sleep in separate houses called by Asamese, " morangs." These are of 

 two kinds, i. e., the Deka morangs, of the grown young men, who also act 

 as guards, their houses being often on the outskirts or outlets of a village, 

 and the little boys' morangs, where they all sleep together, and are under 

 certain laws or regulations of their own. In some villages as among the 

 Bor Duria Nogas there are as many as 10 and 12 Deka morangs, several 

 boys' morangs, and three or four, for the unmarried girls. Incautious or 

 abrupt questions regarding these latter, especially by strangers are apt to 

 produce denial or evasions, as these hill men well know that our ideas of 

 chastity are not theirs. But at times they speak out plainly. Lately a 

 " Bor Duria" Noga who was giving me a list of his village morangs, in 

 reply to my query as to whether the young men went to the girls' morangs, 

 said *' na pai, na pai, dinot na pai," not in the day, they would be ashamed, 

 but after dark after all had eaten, then they went and all had great fun, it 

 was their custom. 



Among all these tribes this is more or less the custom, and we may 

 truly say their chastity begins with marriage, juvenile chastity is not the 

 rule, but the exception, I am aware that this is contrary to the recorded 

 opinions of many ; nevertheless I am sure it is true, nay more, it is appa- 

 rently a race character of long standing, undoubtedly existing among these 

 hill savages ere their dispersion by the Aryan invaders. We see this iden- 

 tical custom now among the races, north, east, and south, of Asam, races 

 whose languages (originally from one stock) are now so different as to be 

 quite mutually unintelligible. The custom also is so similar and peculiar 

 as to preclude the idea of separate origin in each tribe. Like the " pile 

 platform" houses we see among these same races, it appears a relic of very 

 high antiquity. A custom that has survived the dispersion of these tribes 

 from some common centre, and proof of original unity. To anthropologists 

 it is of value as a link joining our present system of morals with the pre- 

 historic past. 



As we see the custom about us, it generally appears that the unmar- 



