490 Report of an Expedition into the Mishmee Hills. [No. 163. 



swords, and copper vessels : they also barter a great deal among them- 

 selves, but the difficulty of passing through the country must always in 

 a great degree tend to hinder the advancement of trade, as from the 

 nature of the country it can scarcely be expected that any other mode 

 of conveyance can be adopted, than that of carrying all goods in the 

 baskets at present in use amongst them, which are placed on the back 

 and supported by a band which passes round the head. 



Houses and mode of Living. — The habitations of the Mishmees are 

 generally, as much as possible, hid from the view by being placed 

 in patches of jungle left for the purpose of concealment; they are 

 usually built apart from each other, and unlike most other people, 

 these Mishmees never congregate in villages. Their houses are all 

 constructed with raised platforms, and vary from 12 to 15 feet in 

 breadth, and 120 and 180 in length: a passage down one side com- 

 municates with the rooms, which are divided off into lengths of from 

 ten to thirty feet long ; down the whole length of this passage two 

 bamboos are placed, on which are ranged the heads of all the animals 

 that the owner of the house has killed during his lifetime, and which 

 being constantly exposed to the smoke from the fires, and plastered 

 with blood on the occasion of any animal being slain, turn to a 

 perfectly black color with a fine polish. Above the fires, one or two 

 of which are placed in every compartment, are hung crates of bamboo, 

 which are used for drying and smoking whatever articles are required ; 

 and about these compartments blocks of wood are strewed, which serve 

 the inmates for pillows. The under part of the house is appropriated 

 to the pigs and fowls, in which they are confined by a paling of wood. 

 The staple commodity of food cultivated by these Mishmees is a grain 

 called babosa ; it is Used both for food, and to prepare an unfermented 

 liquor, which is drunk in a hot state as soon as made. Rice is 

 grown, but in small quantities, and merely by those tribes in the 

 vicinity of Assam, and is not capable of being cultivated on the moun- 

 tains in the interior : they however possess other kinds of grain, such as 

 buck- wheat, Indian-corn, baitnah, &c. ; but should all these fail them, 

 they are capable of existing on the interior part of the Sinwah and 

 Dhainkeeah trees, which afford sufficient nutriment to preserve them 

 from starving, and affords excellent food for their pigs, on which they 

 are commonly fed. 



