1855.] Notes on Northern Cachar. 63 5 



members of the society have houses built for them by the commu- 

 nity, and the villagers will also build a house for a popular or influ- 

 ential Thushoi, but no one except the Rajah can claim their labour 

 as a right. 



The village is built without much attention to regularity, and 

 generally takes the form of a rude street or square with several 

 rows of houses on each side. The houses are all gable-ended, 

 of equal height at both ends, constructed almost entirely with bam- 

 boos, and raised on platforms three or four feet above the ground : 

 they are of various sizes, according to the wealth of the owner or 

 the number of inmates. A house for five individuals is generally five 

 "lams" by three, a lam being a man's length, and that and the cubit 

 ("tong") are the only measurements used among the people. 

 The houses often contain only one room, but are generally divided 

 into two, and frequently into more ; the number of apartments 

 depends upon that of the wives and concubines possessed by the 

 owner, it being thought indelicate to keep two wives in the same 

 chamber. Upon completion of their own houses the inhabitants 

 construct a strong stockade round the dwelling of the Rajah, enclos- 

 ing generally within it the houses of one or two of the chief Thushois. 



The village is next fortified, all roads leading to it being barri- 

 caded, admittance lying through a wicket, and the ground in the 

 neighbourhood being thickly planted with " panjies." Guard houses 

 are also built at the barricades where the young men watch and 

 sleep at nights. These measures of defence are, however, less fre- 

 quently resorted to now, there being no enemies to fear, even the 

 Angami Nagas abstaining from hostilities with people so well able 

 to defend themselves. The village completed, cultivation is com- 

 menced, and the jungles resound with the clash of dhaos. The 

 Rajah apportions to each individual the land that he is to clear. 



In their own country, the Kookies generally perched their villages 

 on the tops of hills, not from any particular love for such elevation, 

 but as offering greater advantages for defence. They also contrived 

 by this means to have the villages under one Rajah so placed, 

 however distant they might be, as to be within sight of one another, 

 and thus enabled themselves to give notice of an attack by means 

 of bonfires. But in N. Cachar they prefer building on the low 



