636 Notes on Northern Cacliar. [No. 7. 



grounds, these being closer to places where the best and largest 

 patches of cultivation can be cleared, and nearer water, whilst 

 danger no longer exists of attacks from without. 



The Kookies are a short sturdy race of men with a goodly deve- 

 lopment of muscle. Their legs are, generally speaking, short in com- 

 parison to the length of their bodies, and their arms long. Their 

 complexion differs little from that of the Bengali, and comprises 

 various shades, but the features are most markedly dissimilar ; the 

 face is nearly as broad as long, and is generally round or square, 

 the cheek bones high, broad and prominent, eyes small and almond- 

 shaped, and the nose short and flat with wide nostrils. The women 

 appear more squat than the men even, but are strong and lusty, 

 and quite as industrious and indefatigable as the Naga women ; 

 working hard all day either at home or in the fields, and accustomed 

 to carry heavy loads. The men, like the Nagas, are inclined to 

 be lazy, though not to such an extent as that tribe. They love to 

 sit on high platforms raised for the purpose in their villages, and 

 pass the day in conversation and smoking. Men, women, and 

 children all smoke to the greatest excess. A Kookie is hardly ever 

 seen without his pipe in his mouth ; whether labouring or travelling 

 it is his constant companion, and one of his few means of calculating 

 time and distance is by the number of pipes he smokes. The men 

 smoke a pipe, the bowl of which is either made of brass, rudely orna- 

 mented, or of the end of a small bamboo tube, a reed being let in near 

 the knot, as a mouth-piece. The women imbibe the vapour through 

 water ; an earthern bowl is introduced into a bamboo tube filled with 

 water, from which issues the mouth-piece, and this water when well 

 saturated with the oil of the tobacco is drunk by the men with great 

 relish. They also chew tobacco in great quantities. 



Eice is their staple food but they are very fond of flesh of all kinds, 

 especially that of tigers and elephants, which they imagine imparts 

 strength ; they also eat dogs and cats, and nearly every animal in the 

 jungle. But they are not quite so indiscriminate as the Nagas in their 

 l'ood,and do regard some living creatures as unclean, and avoid carrion, 

 except when presented in the shape of a dead elephant, which they 

 cannot resist. They manufacture several kinds of fermented liquors, 

 from rice, and have a kind of rice which they grow for the especial pur- 



