1875.] J. Butler — Bough Notes on tlie Angami Ndgas. 319 



contains the liquor tub, the most important piece of furniture in the house 

 in the Naga's estimation. In this they brew their " dzu", a kind of fer- 

 mented beer, made of rice and other ingredients, composed of herbs found 

 wild in the jungle. This liquor is the Angami Naga's greatest solace, for 

 strange to say never indulging in either opium, or tobacco (as many of 

 his neighbours do), he may be seen sipping this " dzu", either through a 

 reed (after the manner of a sherry cobler), or with a wooden or bamboo 

 spoon out of bamboo or mithan horn drinking cups, from morn to night. 



Close to their villages, on either side of the road, as well as within, 

 sometimes not a couple of yards from their houses, they bury their dead, 

 raising over them large mounds, square, round, and oblong in shape, the 

 sides being built up with large stones ; sometimes an upright stone, or 

 an effigy cleverly carved in wood, is added. In the latter case this grotesque 

 caricature of the " human form divine" lying below, is decked out in a 

 complete suit of all the clothes and ornaments worn by the deceased in- 

 cluding a set of imitation weapons, the originals being always deposited in 

 the grave with the body. In one instance I remember coming across a 

 grave by the road side several miles away from any village, and on en- 

 quiry, learning, that it had been purposely placed there, exactly half way 

 between the village in which the deceased had been born, and that in which 

 he had died, and had passed the latter portion of his life. This was done, 

 I was told, so as to enable his spirit to revisit either. 



Huge monoliths, or large upright stones, which have been the sub- 

 ject of so much remark elsewhere, and which are to be met with all over the 

 world, exist here too, and are not only to be found as remains of the past, 

 but their erection may be witnessed almost any day at the present time. 

 These monuments are erected, either singly, or in rows, and are meant to 

 perpetuate the memory, sometimes of the dead, when they are in fact no- 

 thing more nor less than simply tombstones, sometimes of the living, in 

 which case we may look upon them much in the light of statues. Thus 

 I remember being considerably astonished some three years ago when the 

 villagers of Sakhaboma were pleased to raise such a monument to my hum- 

 ble self, a great compliment which was repeated last year by another vil- 

 lage east of the Sijjo. These stones, which are often very large, and have 

 sometimes to be brought from long distances, are dragged up in a kind of 

 sledge, formed out of a forked tree on which the stone is levered, and then 

 carefully lashed with canes and creepers, and to this the men, sometimes 

 to the number of several hundreds, attach themselves in a long line and by 

 means of putting rollers underneath they pull it along, until it has been 

 brought up to the spot where it has been previously decided finally to erect 

 it. Here a small hole is then dug to receive the lower end of the stone, 

 and the sledge being tilted up on end, the lashings are cut adrift, and the 



