196 



The mil-tribe, of the Northern Frontier of Assam. [No. 4, 



though the influence they manage to exercise over £*£f£ 

 countless hosts they would be able without much difficulty to lead 



families, would be the more appropriate one to use ; yet each of these 

 petty clans has a chief whom they style Kaja, like then: newborns, 

 the Butias,-not Gam, like their other neighbours, the Daflas. 



Thl elans are so small, that they find room each ,n a hou, by 

 themselves. Some elans number only thirty souls, £»£*£ 

 one hundred, and according to the number of mma e « the zed 

 each house The most numerous elan boasts of a chief, who but 



^Tknown among the Assamese, and the neighWng hiUmen 

 and no doubt the Bengal Government too has earnt to know 

 Hsnanre. This is Tagi Baja. ™s man has succeeded m obtmn 

 the hegemony over all the Kopas-chor Akas, and as he exercise, 

 gat tnuenle over the Mijis also, he is able to intim ida te h 

 Lt of the Aka people, and thus may be said to he the head of all the 



H The Hazarikhuka Akas live in three clans on a separate hill from 



the Tali's people. 



Internal feuds are numerous. It is a matter of no rare occurren , 

 to see clan against elan, i. e. family against family enhst the ard 

 the Mijis and cany on a miniature warfare. 



The Hrusso use the cross-bow and poisoned arrows ; a h h 

 S pear for the purposes of throwing, and a narrow swo abou 

 four feet long. They manufacture their own arms; the i on and 



^however they "buy in Assam. They use nerthe^hreld nd 

 helmet. Their tactics are simple; like all the ^ hill- tatas^j 

 rely upon sudden surprise, they lie in ambush and fall upon then foes 



"Issamese Buruas of the days of the native rulers used the Akas 

 for purposes of revenge and intrigue. And it was through the party- 

 spirit of one of the Buruas, or governors of Chardoar m the days ot 

 Gaurinath, the last real king of Assam, that the Akas obtained the 

 privilege of levying pieces of Eria silk (Bambyz), and cotton cloth 

 from every household in the Balipara mehal, which they continue to 

 do unto this day. The only occasion on which the Akas have come 



