ABORS AND GALONGS. ?, 



face of the tarn is lifted, and the worshipper permitted to gaze upon the water that he 

 is forbidden to enter. My informant, whilst admitting that he had not visited Tsari 

 as a twelfth-year pilgrim, laudably endeavoured to uphold his monastic reputation 

 by claiming to have seen the lake unveiled. This sacred peak has an Abor counterpart 

 in Regam, the height dominating the Dihang above Pasighat. The Abors do not 

 make pilgrimages so this peak is not visited. 



On the next stage after Chungu-ge there is a temple built over a sacred rock that is 

 covered with images. The two following days lead the pilgrim first to a holy spring, 

 and then to a shrine where the imprint of a mule's hoof is shown on the rock. Chesam 

 is reached on the following day. The Tsan-po is crossed on the 13th day of the journey 

 in boats made of hides ; the ferry is an easy one. It is said that two days down stream 

 from the crossing is the birth-place of the present Dalai-Lama. 



From Tsari a magnificent view is said to be obtained down a valley running 

 VT . ., south. This valley is inhabited by the most northern 



I uknown neighbours. J J 



sept of the Loba tribe called Loteu, who are an entirely 

 different race to the Tibetans. They are described as wearing their hair either in a 

 knot on the top of the head, or cut Abor-fashion. The}^ carry bows and their iron- 

 tipped arrows are poisoned, according to my informant, with aconite (tsendug). They 

 carry their arrows in the usual bamboo cases. Some have guns, a few of which are 

 of Tibetan manufacture. The Loteus, being in direct contact with Tibet, occasionally 

 wear Tibetan clothes and hats, but the majority are said to wear short white coats 

 generally of wool. They do not appear to wear cane helmets, but in rainy weather 

 use the big leaf hats common throughout the hills and plains in north-eastern Assam. 

 My informant persisted in his statement that the Loba houses seen in the valley were 

 mere huts of the roughest description, and that agriculture was unknown to them. 

 The only light that he was able to throw on what he must have considered a some- 

 what precarious existence, was that the Loteus collect quantities of earth-worms and 

 cook them without water in bamboo chungas, which are commonly used of course 

 as cooking utensils by the Abors further south. 



It is suggested as quite possible that the Loteus, with the general distrust and 

 dislike exhibited towards a more northern and practically unknown people, live some 

 way down the valley, and run up temporary shelters when they come to Tsari, which 

 they appear to regard simply as the most profitable of hen-roosts, and the Tibetan 

 pilgrims as the easiest of victims. The Memongs, in their turn, expressed a marked 

 distrust of the Bori traders. 



The Loteus wear strings of beads, some of them being obtained by trading with 

 the Tibetans, but a number of necklaces of imitation turquoise appear to be given by 

 the Tsari pilgrims to keep the Loteus from interfering with them. These necklaces 

 were frequently noticed by Lieut .-Colonel Lindsay, 2nd Gurkha Rifles, on his visit to 

 Damroh, but they are almost unknown in the Minyong country below Kebang. They 

 consist of square beads of blue porcelain frequently carved into what appears to be the 

 wheel of life in its simplest form, a form that occurs amongst the symbols with which 

 the dankis are ornamented. The Lobas are said to speak a language of their 



