646 Notes on Northern Cachar. [No. 7. 



and care is taken while planting the panjies, to conceal them as far 

 as circumstances will admit, by covering them with loose grass, &c. 

 They are stuck in at a slight angle in direction of the party supposed 

 to be advancing, and any foot placed upon them, with the whole 

 weight of the body on it, is pierced from the sole right through to 

 the instep, the individual being perfectly disabled. The wound 

 inflicted is most dangerous, many dying from it, and it is invariably 

 long in being healed. Moreover in very fierce feuds between the 

 tribes it was the custom to have the panjies poisoned. Shoes even 

 are not a sufficient guard against these panjies, for although a stout 

 sole is able to resist them yet they pierce the sides, where the foot 

 overlaps. The only method to counteract their use is carefully to 

 pluck them out of the ground, and this causes great delay, and 

 cannot be done when the advancing party is under fire. 



The women wear a small blue cloth wrapped tightly round their 

 thighs, and reaching from below the navel to the knee ; another cloth 

 is thrown over the shoulders. They have no head dress but a luxu- 

 riant crop of not coarse hair, which is parted in the middle, and 

 plaited at the sides, being tied up behind in a knot. Armlets, 

 bracelets, necklaces and earrings are worn by both sexes, the two 

 former being generally made of brass, and very massive. A common 

 armlet worn by the men consists of two semi-circular boar's tusks 

 tied together so as to form a ring. And among the bracelets, one 

 is hollow, having a leaden bullet inside it, which causes a tinkling 

 sound on every movement of the wearer, and another of ivory, into 

 which the wrist is slipped, is worn on the left hand by archers as a 

 guard to prevent the bowstring hurting that hand, when released by 

 the fingers of the right. Necklaces are made of red cornelian beads, 

 or of white beads manufactured from shells by rubbing them down 

 into small cylinders, and women wear necklaces of beads of a blue 

 stone, very common among the Kookies. The Changsen and Lhum- 

 ghum tribes bore their ears in the same manner as the old Kookies, 

 and insert into the holes xings of silver or copper four or five 

 inches in circumference, through which they again hang blue and 

 red stones, attached by cotton threads. Eings of brass wire are 

 worn on the fingers by both sexes. 



The Kookies are much attached to their weapons and ornaments, 



