1872.] Naga Tribes of Asdm. 49 



Of the third inscription, Mr. Wilson sends the following reading : — 



II (sic) «XjU) AaJUj j e^Ji*->'«» i ^^-wo Ai^j^ c-s^*./( c-j^^j (j.^ 

 Translation^. 



The building of tlie strong vault of Makhdumah Jahan, the late mother of his 

 Majesty 'Alauddunya wad-din Shah, the king, [was made] during the reign of the 

 said king. Dated 19th Rajab, 877, A. H. [20th December, 1472, A. D.] 



Mr. Wilson says that her tomb is within the same building in which 

 her son, the Emperor Sa3ryid ' Alauddin lies buried. It is said that her body 

 was removed there after the death of her son m 883, A. H. 



Mr. Wood-Mason exhibited various articles of Naga dress, etc., and 

 an illustrated note-book lately received from Mr. S. E. Peal of Sibsagar, 

 Asam, containing an interesting account of a visit to several ISTaga tribes. He 

 drew the attention of the meeting to one of the sketches, which re- 

 presented a mode of climbing trees precisely identical with that in vogue 

 amongst the Dyaks of Borneo according to Mr. Wallace,* and described by 

 that eminent naturalist in the following terms : — 



" As I was very anxious to get it (the Mias), I tried to pursuade two 

 young Dyaks who were with me to cut down the tree, which was tall, 

 perfectly straight and smooth-barked, and without a branch for fifty or 

 sixty feet. To my surprise they said, they would prefer climbing up it, but 

 it would be a good deal of trouble, and after a little talking together, they 

 said they would tiy. They first went to a clump of bamboo that stood 

 near, and cut down one of the largest stems. From this they chopped off 

 a short piece, and splitting it, made a couple of stout pegs, about a foot long 

 and sharp at one end. Then cutting a thick piece of wood for a mallet, 

 they drove one of the pegs into the tree and hung their weight upon it. It 

 held, and this seemed to satisfy them, for they immediately began making a 

 quantity of pegs of the same kind, while I looked on with great interest, 

 wondering how they could possibly ascend such a lofty tree by merely 

 driving pegs in it, the failure of any one of which at a good height would 

 certainly cause their death. When about two dozen pegs were made, one of 

 them began cutting some very long and slender bamboo from another clump, 

 and also prepared some cord from the bark of a small tree. They now 

 drove in a peg very firmly at about three feet from the ground, and bring- 

 ing one of the long bamboos, stood it upright close to the tree, and bound it 

 firmly to the two first pegs, by means of the bark cord, and small notches 

 near the head of each peg. One of the Dyaks now stood on the first peg 

 and drove in a third about level with his face, to which he tied the bamboo 

 * The Malay Archipelago, Vol. I., pp. 54-56. 



