ABORS AND GALONGS. 25 



the crown, the edges of which are carefully trimmed. The appearance of the dwellers 

 in the Dihang valley, with their distinctly Mongoloid features, is not improved by 

 this peculiarly ugly custom. The northern Galong clans dress their hair in a more 

 attractive fashion. The men cut their hair, they do not shave it • and the women wear 

 their hair long, parting it in the centre and tying it in a chignon at the back. The 

 Memong women in particular were found to plait the tresses nearest the forehead drawing 

 them back over their ears. 1 Many of these women presented an alternative type to 

 that generally associated with the hill tribes, for they possessed regular oval features 

 and, with slightly aquiline noses and an olive skin, were almost Semitic in appearance. 

 The roundfaced Mongoloid type was also noticed in the Memong villages and served 

 to accentuate the real beauty of the other women. This clan gave one the impression 

 of being clean and healthy and showed a better physique than any other clan in the 

 country. The Dobangs and Taduns are not so fine a race as the Memongs, but they 

 compare very favourably with the Minyongs. The Padam are of fine physique, 

 which is more than can be said for their neighbours, the Panggis, who are most 

 degenerate in appearance. The Minyongs are superior to the Panggis, but neither 

 mentally nor physically can they compare with the Galongs. The Pasis of the Balek 

 group compare favourably with their Minyong neighbours, but the communities settled 

 on or near the plains bear those traces of civilization that are associated with rum and 

 opium. Apart from these influences the people inhabiting the actual valley of the 

 Dihang are noticeably inferior in physique to their Padam and Galong neighbours. 



Speaking generally, Abors and Galongs have black e3 7 es and are brown skinned, 

 but the colour of the skin has been observed to range from almost black to the 

 softest olive. The hillmen, taken as a whole, are short and sturdy, and some exceed- 

 ingly well-made specimens of manhood have been seen among them. They are 

 capable of a considerable amount of hard work ; unloaded they move steadily and 

 rapidly over long stretches of difficult country without feeling fatigue, and even 

 heavily laden will cover a considerable distance in the day over an indifferent hill 

 track. The Subansiri Dafla is not the finest type of hillman, but I met some of them 

 beyond Moi-a hill carrying loads of at least ioo pounds over a long and difficult 

 march. The men perform the heaviest labour, but the women, who work far more 

 continuously, are strong, and are accustomed to heavy loads ; they and their sturdy 

 children form the majority of the coolies given to the traveller throughout these 

 hills when a village is called upon to carry over the next stage. The hillmen are 

 unused to running beyond the shortest of distances. When walking the body is kept 

 upright, the legs are slightly bent at the knee and the arms swing freely, with the 

 palms of the hands inwards. 



Tattooing is not regarded by the hillmen as a religious rite. Certain designs 

 that have been noticed, such as the arrow head and the dot within the circle, that 

 are conventional Phallic signs elsewhere, do not appear to convey any such association, 

 nor indeed has it been determined that any marks or designs have a definite meaning 



1 This is the Memba fashion. 



