1855.] Notes on Northern Cachar. 613 



the domestic business and the residence of the pigs and fowls belonging 

 to the family. The village is generally built in one irregular street, the 

 entrance with gables facing the road, but sometimes the houses are 

 thrown together without reference to order at all. Each family lives in 

 a separate house; and the young men or "Dekhas" inhabit a large 

 hut appropriated to themselves, in which are hung up the spoils of 

 the chase and the implements of war, and which forms at the same 

 time the caravansarai or inn of the village. 



The Nagas attach great value to iron, and use it only in the 

 manufacture of weapons, their cooking utensils being invariably 

 made of wood, bamboo or clay. They manufacture dhaos, spears, 

 hatchets and hoes, there being generally in each village an individual 

 who officiates as blacksmith. 



Two or three kinds of cloth are manufactured by the Nagas, among 

 which are the coarse khes which they use as a covering, and a small 

 piece of cloth of different texture, dyed with indigo, which they tie 

 round their waists. The cloth used in dancing is the same as the 

 white khes, but has small triangles at regular intervals woven into 

 it with red and blue thread, and also fringes at each end made of 

 the same, which give it a gay appearance. 



This tribe is passionately fond of ornaments, and both males 

 and females may be said to load themselves with them ; many 

 of these are manufactured at home, but they consist for the most 

 part of nothing but brass-wire, an article much prized by the JNagas, 

 and shells, or cowries, which are imported. One of their ornaments, 

 an armlet, is peculiar to themselves, although it has been adopted 

 by the Kookies since their arrival in the country. It consists of a 

 rod of brass, twisted some eight or ten times in the shape of a wire- 

 spring, and slipped on the arm, fitting tightly to the flesh between the 

 shoulder and the elbow, and being most inconvenient, I should say, 

 for the exercise of the arm. There is only one stone to which the 

 Nagas attach any value. I have never been able to find out its name ; 

 it is a dirty, yellowish, almost greenish looking opaque stone, and 

 is cut by them into cylindrical beads, and worn, stringed together, 

 round the neck. Pew among them are rich enough to have a com- 

 plete necklace of such beads, but most of them will be seen to have 

 as many as five or six of this kind strung on in company with others, 



