616 Notes on Northern Cachar. [No. 7. 



these is, however, a very lively one, and resembles in some degree 

 the Highland Fling. It is easily seen that the women are the chief 

 dancers, and those who take most iuterest in the exercise. A very 

 poor idea of music exists among the Nagas, and it is never practised 

 except in dancing, where it serves to mark the time ; a rude mono- 

 tonous song is chaunted by the whole company, and eked out with 

 the clapping of hands both on the part of the dancers and the 

 spectators. The performers, being laden with massive necklaces, 

 armlets and bracelets, make these ornaments chink in time to the 

 step, and a drum is also in some instances beaten in accompaniment. 



The Naga cry or war-whoop is not a sound to be described in 

 words, beiug something fearfully shrill and long continued, yelled 

 with variations. But the custom among them called " hoo-hoo-ing" 

 is easier of description ; this is a common way among this tribe of 

 paying honour to any individual, or to the inhabitants of any other 

 village that they may happen to visit, and it is always supposed to 

 call forth a donation from the party honoured. Parties of from ten 

 to fifty take up the cry in chorus, which consists of nothing but the 

 sounds of " hoi and hou" uttered alternately with the full force of 

 the lungs, for about an hundred times, and finished off with a 

 " howh" a harsher prolongation of the "hou." When one village 

 compliments another in this way, they are very careful to exact a 

 certain value for the compliment paid, and quarrels have been known 

 to arise, when the compensation was not thought sufficient. 



The Cacharees of Sunkur, alone, of all the other tribes in the 

 country, have this custom in common with the Nagas. 



In carrying burdens the Nagas in respiring utter a sound like " hu 

 ho," and when a number are on the road together a chorus is main- 

 tained. This custom is practised by all the tribeswith slight variations, 

 but it must not be confounded with the " hoo-hoo-ing" describedabove, 

 which is strictly peculiar to the Nagas. For an inhabitant of the 

 hills the Naga is very cleanly in body, washing himself pretty freely 

 whenever he can come across a sufficiency of water. But his clothes, 

 except when new, are very filthy, and filled with vermin. As regards 

 eating, he is the most indiscriminate animal in creation. His staple 

 food is of coarse rice, but his luxury consists in flesh. I do not 

 know a single living creature of any kind which he will not eat, 



