1875.] J. Butler — Bough Notes on the Angdmi Nag da. 321 



of hill races, and is generally well proportioned, especially as regards his 

 legs, the large muscles of the thigh and calf being remarkably well developed. 

 His complexion is comparatively fair, though among them, as among 

 almost all the Indo-Chinese races, we meet with various shades of brown, 

 from the almost ruddy and light olive to the red-Indian and dark brown 

 types. I do not, however, ever remember seeing a black Naga, I mean a 

 black such as is common in Bengal, except in one instance, and then further 

 enquiry elicited the fact that he was not a pure Naga at all, but the son of 

 an Asamese captive who became naturalized, and was afterwards allowed 

 to take unto himself a daughter of the land (of his involuntary adoption). 

 In feature also there is great variety, but high cheek bones predominate. 

 The men of the upper ranges are really often almost handsome, and some 

 of the women might almost be called pretty. But as regards the latter, 

 hard work and exposure, coupled with the trials of early maternity, soon 

 tell a tale, and I have been quite surprised and grieved to see how soon they 

 age. In little more than six years I have seen mere children develope into 

 comely lasses, and these latter again into sturdy matrons, whilst I have 

 watched wives and mothers, whose youthful looks at first surprised me, 

 change suddenly into wrinkled old women with scarcely a trace of their 

 former good looks about them. I confess, however, that beauty of form 

 is not the rule in these hills. Whether it is that the more or less lavish 

 display of such charms as they possess, enables us the better to exercise 

 a discriminating judgment upon the beauty, or want of beauty, their forms 

 display, I cannot pretend to say, but this much I do know, that here we 

 may seek, and seek in vain, for any of the soft contours and lovely outlines 

 which give shape to the persons of the women of other races. At the same 

 time I must add that I have not failed to notice that hill loomen all over 

 India, from the fair dwellers in Kashmir to their dark sisters inhabiting the 

 uplands of Bengal, all fall off in this particular, and are very rarely indeed, 

 if ever, able to boast of a good figure. 



As with the men, so with the women, I think they are certainly taller 

 than the average of other hill-women, and their features more regular. 

 They are chaste, faithful, merry, and — unlike their brothers — never to be 

 seen idle. Their duty it is to fetch the wood, draw the water, cook the 

 food, and brew the liquor, besides working in the fields and weaving cloths 

 at home. It will be observed that among the characteristics of the women 

 I have placed chastity, and it may be as well perhaps for me to explain 

 that by this term I do not for a moment mean to say that they are 

 exactly chaste according to our ideas, but simply that they are true to and 

 act up to, their own principles with regard to that virtue. The relation- 

 ship between the sexes, and the exact footing on which it should stand, is, 

 and ever has been, one of the world's most difficult problems, and the most 



