1839.] the Naga territories of Assam. 469 



was no further use for them.^ From the difficulty of understand- 

 ing the Angamees, and from my requiring interpretations through the 

 Cacharee-Hindoostanee, Cachar-Hill, Naga, and Angamee, dialects I 

 found it no easy matter to get information regarding the Angamee 

 customs ; besides, the impatience of the wild Angamee to remain any 

 time in one place or attitude is a great obstacle to obtaining such 

 information. The Angamees, or as they are termed by the Assamese 

 the Cachar Nagas, are a very different race from the Nagas of the 

 Cachar hills ; they are a much finer and independent set, and have for 

 some time exacted tribute from their pusillanimous neighbours of the 

 lower hills, and collect from Mahye to Gumegoogoo, obliging the 

 Semker Cacharees even to give them salt, &c. to preserve peace. 



The young men in particular are fine, sleek, tall, well made youths, 

 and many are very good looking ; they pride themselves much upon 

 their cunning. The formation of their joints struck me as being singu- 

 lar, they are not bony or angular, but smooth and round, particularly 

 those of the knees and elbows. They are continually at war with each 

 other. Their dress is that peculiar to most other eastern hr'ghlanders, 

 but of a more tasteful make than most others. It is a blue kilt, 

 prettily ornamented with cowrie shells, and either a coarse grey or 

 blue coloured cloth thrown over their shoulders, which in war time is 

 tied up in such a manner as to allow of a bamboo being inserted 

 to carry the person away, should he be wounded. Their defensive 

 weapon is a shield, of an oblong shape, made of bamboo mat work, 

 with a board behind to prevent any weapon from piercing it ; their 

 offensive weapon is a spear of seven or eight feet long, which they throw 

 or retain in their hand in attacking. Their villages are generally good 

 sized ones, built on the high hills below the great range, which appear 

 most difficult of access, and are usually in two parallel lines, with 

 the gable end of the houses towards the front, in a diagonal position 

 to the street. Their houses are commodious, being one large roof raised 

 from the ground, with mat walls inside ; the interior is divided into 

 two apartments — a cooking apartment and a hall, in which all assem- 

 ble. In this last every thing they possess is kept, and equally serves 

 for a sleeping apartment, sitting room, or store room, large baskets 

 of grain being generally the furniture of one side. There are always 

 two large fires, round which are benches of planks forming a square 

 seat for all the gentlemen and ladies of the family ; one fire is set apart 

 expressly for the youths and children, who are not allowed to mix 

 with the sage old people. In front of their houses are either round or 

 square stone pigsties, on which, of a morning and evening, the villagers 

 sit sipping with a wooden ladle from a gourd bowl a kind of spirit 



3p 



