CRANIOLOGY OF PEOPLE OF INDIA. 717 



Tonkal Ndgds. Table II. 



In 1893 a box reached me from Surgeon-Lieutenant- Colonel F. W. Wright, D.S.O., 

 containing eight skulls which he had collected in the house of a Tonkal Nagd, in the 

 upper village of Hwining, situated about 6000 feet above the sea-level in the hills some 

 forty miles north-east of Manipur. The occasion which led to an expedition being sent 

 into the hills was a raid by the " Kukis" on the Naga village of Swemi, situated some 

 7000 feet above sea-level, and about 70 miles north-east of Manipur. The people of 

 Hwining, although themselves Nagas, had joined the Kukis in the raid on villages of 

 their own tribe. 



Dr Wright also wrote a most interesting letter, in which he informed me that there 

 are two villages at Hwining, an upper and a lower, built on the crest of a spur running 

 from about south-west to north-east, and at the south-west end is the upper village. 

 The villages are separated by about half a mile of uneven ground, and their inhabitants 

 used to fight with each other, and take each other's heads. As it is not the custom of 

 the Tonkal Nagas to preserve the heads of friends and relatives, but to bury their dead 

 close to their houses, the skulls collected had evidently been those of persons murdered 

 or killed in battle, and afterwards preserved. Dr Wright found these skulls fixed as 

 trophies to a board on the wall of the front room facing the entrance to a house. He 

 believes them to be the skulls of Tonkal Nagds, as Hwining is surrounded by Tonkal 

 villages, with which it was, and indeed in some instances is, still at feud ; possibly 

 they are skulls of the Nagas of the lower village of Hwining. The head of a woman is 

 as much prized as that of a man, for as women do not go far away from their homes, 

 the captor requires to approach close to the hostile village, and puts himself therefore 

 into greater danger in order to secure the head. 



From the very instructive account of the Nagds with which Dr Wright has 

 favoured me I make the following extract : — 



" The hills north-east of Manipur range in height from 3000 to 7000 feet. They 

 are clothed with forests, and abound in game. The human inhabitants are Ndgas and 

 Kukis. Both are savage tribes, and go about nearly naked, but the women are more 

 clothed than the men. They make clearings in the forests and grow crops of rice, 

 Indian corn, etc., and from the rice they make a fermented liquor called ' Zoo,' which is 

 not unlike a rough kind of cider. The Ndgds are the indigenous natives, and reside 

 permanently in one place, and live in huts on the tops of the hills, where they can 

 command a view of the approach of their enemies. The Kukis have immigrated from 

 the south from the hills between Manipur and Burma. They are not settled in their 

 habits, but make from time to time new clearings, so that they are very destructive to 

 the forests, and raid the Ndgd villages and kill the inhabitants. Both Nagds and Kukis 

 eat the flesh of pigs and other animals. It is said that a Nagd, gives a good meal of 

 rice to a dog, then kills and roasts it, and makes a meal of dog, stomach and rice. 



