1855.] Notes on Northern CacTiar. 603 



young men of the village after they have attained a certain age, and 

 before their marriage, no longer continue to live with their parents, 

 but club together in a large house, placed generally in the centre 

 of the village and called the " dekha chung" or warrior's house. 

 This practice they have in common with the Nagas. The Purbuttias 

 in N. Cachar number about 6,500 souls. They cultivate rice, cotton, 

 sugar cane and tobacco, not with the plough, but by means of the 

 hoe, and as theirs is a peculiar mode of cultivation, apparently 

 common only to the hill tribes on their frontier, and practised by 

 the Kookies and Nagas also, I will enter into a detailed account of 

 it. I have already stated that the prevailing jungle in N. Cachar con- 

 sists of a small single bamboo, which grows uniformly and closely toge- 

 ther, the stems not being more than ten inches or a foot apart at 

 their base, and reaching a height of thirty feet. This jungle extends 

 all over the lower hills and the spurs from the high ones, and is 

 only absent on the tops of the mountains and in some low grounds 

 to the north. This wilderness of bamboo is the great cultivating 

 ground of the district, and the process is thus managed. Early in 

 the cold season large parties of the cultivators proceed to the jungles 

 in the vicinity of their villages, and having selected a good patch, 

 with as much soil on it as possible, commence cutting down the 

 bamboos and clearing the space. The bamboos are cut off about 

 two feet from the ground, the roots and stumps being allowed to 

 remain in the soil : when sufficient space has been cleared, the cut- 

 bamboos are left to rot and dry on the ground, and the effect of one 

 or two showers, at intervals, coupled with the continued dryness of 

 the cold season, renders them by the months of March and April 

 almost as inflammable as gun-powder. Towards the end of the cold 

 season, these fields of cut-bamboos, sometimes embracing the whole 

 of a hill, at other times stretching along the whole face of ridges 

 and valleys, are set on fire in various places. Nothing can ex- 

 ceed the fierceness of the conflagration, or the glorious effect pro- 

 duced by such large masses of flame, roaring and lapping the 

 hills on all sides, and the enormous volumes of smoke that are 

 emitted and hover like clouds in the air. The conflagration is 

 over in a few hours, and leaves on the ground a coating of ashes 

 about an inch or two in thickness, and this is the only manure 



