JOURNAL 



OP 



THE ASIATIC SOCIET Y 



No. 90.— JUNE, 1839. 



Art. I. — Extracts front the Narrative of an Expedition into the 



Naga territory of Assam. By E. R. Grange, Esq. Sub- Assistant 



to the Commissioner, Assam. 



On the morning of the 5th January, 1839, I left my encamp- 

 ment below the village of Dikkling, or Dhemra, with the detach- 

 ment of Assam Seebundees at nine o'clock, and crossing the river 

 entered a newly cut road which conducted us to the Dyung 

 again, about half a mile above the village in a southerly direction, 

 where we crossed the river, and found a very good path which brought 

 us to the village of Somboo at 1 p. m., a distance of about nine miles. 

 The first three-quarters of the road was through a flat country covered 

 with forest trees and light underwood; the latter part the ground 

 became undulating, and still covered with forest. Somboogong is a 

 village consisting of about twenty or twenty-five large houses, situated 

 on a low hill on the right bank of the Dyung river ; the inhabitants are 

 Cacharees, they cultivate lands on both sides of the river, but chiefly in 

 Cachar, asserting that the soil on the left bank is of a more productive 

 nature than on the east ; several families here had formerly come from 

 Semker, having left that place in consequence of the incursions of the 

 Angamee Nagas. 



The passage to Somboo from the Dyuiig-mook by water was said to 

 be two days journey on account of the number of Silbatahs, or weirs. 



The language of the Cacharees of this and all the other villages 

 I met, was totally different from tljat of the inhabitants of the plain, 

 though tl^y all go by the same name; the Hill Cacharee is called 

 Hoje, and that chiefly spoken on the plains called Ramsa. 



3 M 



