612 Notes on Northern Cacliar. [No. 7- 



selected, and placed in a large basket at the appropriate place. The 

 blind god feeling the size of the basket, takes it for granted that 

 the contents are commensurately bulky, and deals his favours accord- 

 ingly ! Indeed, Naga worship is none of the most sincere, even as re- 

 gards the animals that are sacrificed to the wide-awake deities ; little 

 more than the entrails and offal is apportioned to the god, the remain- 

 der going down the ungodly throats of the petitioners ! 



Omens are commonly consulted, and are supposed to indicate the 

 particular deity that is to be worshipped in order to attain a desired 

 end or avert evil. This being ascertained, the village is strictly closed 

 for two days, the inhabitants abstaining from all labor, and neither 

 going out themselves nor permitting any one to enter during that 

 period. This custom is strictly kept, and called " Genua ;" it is 

 difficult to find out what is done during this interval of seclusion ; 

 but nothing further, I am inclined to think, than sacrificing, eating 

 and drinking. Before burning newly felled patches of jungle for culti- 

 vation, it is the invariable custom to establish a Genna. On this, 

 occasion all the fires in the village are extinguished, and a cow or 

 buffaloe being slain, they roast it with fire freshly kindled by means 

 of rubbing together two dry pieces of wood, make sacrifice and eat, 

 after which they proceed in procession with torches lit from the 

 fresh fire to ignite the felled juugle. 



The Nagas cultivate rice, cotton, and tobacco as well as the more 

 common Indian vegetables, such as yams, byguns, kuddoos, cucum- 

 bers, Indian-corn, &c. Their mode of cultivation is exactly similar 

 to that described with reference to the Purbuttia Cacharies ; but 

 they take more crops off the ground than any of the other tribes 

 who cut bamboo -jungle, owing to their distaste to remove to other 

 sites, when the ground near at hand is exhausted. Perhaps it is on 

 account of this, the soil being overtaxed, that both the rice and the 

 cotton grown by the Nagas is inferior to those produced by the 

 Kookies and Meekirs. 



The Naga houses are built after a peculiar fashion, having the eaves 

 down to the very ground. One gable end, the front entrance, is consi- 

 derably elevated, while that to the rear slants down almost to the earth. 

 The floors are not raised on platforms. The houses contain two rooms, 

 the inner reserved as a sleeping apartment, while the outer serves for 



