1840.] Granges Expedition into the Naga Hills. 959 



tial chief came down with all his war accoutrements on ; upon my inquir- 

 ing the reason of his being thus equipped, he said, had we intended 

 any harm, they would have fought us. They had piled up stones on 

 their small circular towers, by the path side, to throw at us as we advan- 

 ced, which proves how ignorant they still are, some of them, of the 

 effects of fire-arms. He offered me his house, and several houses of his 

 party for the night. He informed me that the village was divided into 

 two parties, and that he could answer for the peaceful intentions of his own 

 party, but not for the other. He said he had suffered much since I had 

 last seen him, having quarrelled, fought, and found his match in a fellow 

 villager, who had burnt his house and grain, and made him almost a 

 beggar. In the evening, over a brisk fire, I succeeded in obtaining 

 some of their martial ideas ; bringing his shield, which was covered over 

 with the hair of the foes he had killed, and carefully unwrapping a 

 cloth off two pieces of ratan covered with the hair of his sisters, he 

 placed them on each side of his shield, and commenced springing about 

 with very great agility, spinning his spear round all the time. He then 

 showed me, with an air of very great pride, the two ratan s covered with 

 hair, and said that they could only be worn by warriors who had killed 

 many of their enemies, and brought in their heads, who are then en- 

 titled to receive some locks of hair from each sister, tied on ratan, 

 which they are obliged to wear on their shield, in the manner above des- 

 cribed. They consider certain Nagas their natural enemy, over whom 

 gaining any advantage would be great honor. On my inquiring who 

 his enemies were, he very innocently replied, the Beren Nagas, and 

 those about Simkir ; his feud with the Beren Nagas having arisen from 

 a quarrel he had had with some of the Nagas of that village, at the salt 

 wells near Sumoogoding. On my telling him that I had come up on 

 purpose to suppress the aggressions committed in that quarter, he re- 

 plied that he was aware of it, and had not been out since I was last up 

 on their hills, and that he had assisted the Dak wal, who had foolishly 

 gone up after me. The latter case was true, but whether the former was, 

 or not, was impossible to say ; though as no aggressions from this quar- 

 ter have been heard of this year, it is probably true. Leaving Jykamee 

 on the 3rd, we followed the route by which Captains Jenkins and Pem- 

 berton came, for a short way, and then turning to the left, entered the 

 villagers' cultivations, on which we found the tea tree growing in the 



