26 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



ascribed to them. It is just possible that there may be some remote affinity between 

 the Abor chevrons and the ak marks of the Nagas that proclaim the successful 

 head-hunter. 1 



The practice of tattooing is diminishing in the communities that are closely in 



touch with the plains ; the men seem hardlv ever to be 



Tattooing. r ' 



tattooed and the women are gradually abandoning the 

 practice. Further north the custom is still almost universal among Panggis, the 

 Simong colonies and Karko. The Angong and Tangam Abors do not tattoo them- 

 selves. It is said that originally the different clans had their own designs, but 

 these distinctions have now disappeared. Certain designs are, however, considered 

 suitable for the different parts of the body that the hillmen generally tattoo, and men 

 and women are ornamented with a different set of markings, those given to the women 

 being the more elaborate. Examples of old and new designs are given on Plate O. As 

 may be seen from these illustrations, the markings are not artistic. No designs have 

 been evolved that give graceful conventional patterns, or represent human beings, 

 animals or mythical creatures. The simplest combinations of lines are rigidly adhered 

 to. In reviewing the designs most frequently met with it is interesting to note that one 

 of them is the main component of the Tibetan trigram hor-yig? and that the x is the 

 emblem of the Kar-gyu-pa Lamaist order. * It would not, however, in dealing with so 

 universal and elementary a symbol as the cross in its various forms, be safe to regard 

 this coincidence as a proof of affinity between Tibetan and Abor. But it may be ob- 

 served that the trend of migration/ the appearance of the people, the basis of religion 

 and in a lesser degree the similarity of various words all tend, however slightly, in that 

 direction. It is at least for consideration that these hill tribes came over the passes 

 from the North and that the older inhabitants of these hills may be found in the 

 Miri and Milang settlements that still survive. Research in the Milang country might 

 yield valuable results. Father Krick in his account of his visit to Membu in 1853 

 attributes the cross and chevron-like tattoo marks to Christian origin 6 and developes 

 his theory with great enthusiasm. 



It has been gathered that the Minyongs tattoo their children when they are 

 about ten years old and that the Pasi girls are not tattooed until they reach the age 

 of puberty. All the designs are not executed at one sitting, nor indeed in a single 

 year. A beginning is made with the designs on the calves of the legs, on the breast 

 and round the mouth. These may take four or five days to execute. The embellish- 

 ments resembling the hieroglyphic sign for the Nile are made in the following year, 

 and in the third year the front of the upper portion of both legs are tattooed. The 

 person tattooed is forbidden to eat any meat (other than that of birds) or drink apong 



1 J.A.S.B., Vol. XLI, Part I, 1872. A visit to the Naga Hills by S. E. Peal. 



2 Shown on PI. O. Waddell in his Buddhism of Tibet, p 394 (giving Dutnouties, " Les Symboles, etc. Annamites " 

 as his authority), states that this is a modification of Tho, the Chinese symbol for longevity, and has a similar meaning. 



3 lb., p. 93, where it is stated that this sect was founded in the latter half of the nth century a.d. 

 * P. 12 of Memoir. 



6 Waddell's Buddhism of Tibet, pp 420 422, with its footnotes referring to Hue and Marco Polo, throws light on 

 an interesting theory of the influence of Roman Catholicism upon the Buddhist religion up to the 14th century. 



