7 1 Flora of the Noga Hills. [No. 153. 



to cut down heavy tree jungle, burn the trees and scatter the ashes 

 over the ground, to cultivate this ground for two years, and then abandon 

 it for ten years. Often I believe it is under cultivation only one year, 

 and then abandoned for eight or ten, and this method agrees with the 

 habits of the Nagas. With the implements they use, and the nature of 

 the soil, the rapidity with which a body of Nagas will clear a large ex- 

 tent of dense forest is astonishing, and as they use no other implement 

 but the da, they are ill prepared for digging. This single implement, 

 the da, serves the Nagas to fell the forest, to dig the ground for 

 his rice, to cut the food for his dinner, and to take off the heads of his 

 enemies. The ground being prepared, the women put the rice and other 

 grain in with a dibble. After the Naga has cultivated a piece of 

 ground two years, and often one year only, he finds it so full of 

 weeds, especially of the composite and labiatse families, that it is 

 not worth his while to sow it again, and he clears fresh jungle accord- 

 ingly. The ground which I saw under cultivation two years ago, is 

 now completely overrun with weeds and grass, and fresh jungle has 

 been cleared in the neighbourhood for this year's crop. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Nangta, Kangsing and Nowgong, large tracts of ground 

 were cleared ready for cultivation this season ; some portions sown. 

 The village of Kangsing is pleasantly situated on the summit of a rock, 

 at an elevation of 2568 feet above the level of the sea, and command- 

 ing a fine view of the surrounding country. The houses were neatly 

 thatched with different kinds of palm leaves. The leaves most gene- 

 rally used by the Nagas for thatching are toko pat, Levistonia Assa- 

 mica, jengoo-pat, Calamus hostUis, koosi-pvt, Melica latifolia and 

 Dr. Wallich's palm, or Wallichia caryotoides ; the different kinds are 

 often fancifully intermingled, and bound on with a neat ridge of grass 

 at the top. 



At the village of Asimgia is a fine plant of the sangoch> or Caryota 

 urens, one or two of these are generally met with in each village, as 

 the soft hair in the sheaths of the leaves is used both by Nagas and 

 Assamese for tinder. By the summary of villages visited, given below, 

 it will be seen, that Lakhootee is the highest point to which we reached, 

 3700 feet, a considerable village. This peak is very conspicuous from 

 the plains. 



