ABOBS AND GALONGS. 33 



Having decided upon the site, they erected a long hut in which they all lived, until the 

 work of clearing the spur and building the houses was completed. Into these the 

 colonists moved, bringing their lares et penates down from Kebang. As reports were 

 favourable ten more houses sprang up the following year. And so the village grew. 



One of the first proceedings of a young Abor or Galong colony is to plant jack trees 



in and around the village. These are generally protected bv 



\ lllages and Houses. ° ° x 



fencing from the ravages of cattle. Hill villages are almost 

 invariably on the healthy sites offered by high spurs. Bamboo pipes bring the water 

 into the villages if there is no spring or stream quite close to the houses , and consider- 

 able skill is shown in the alignment of the aqueducts, some of which are of great 

 length. Two pipes were noticed, one Minyong, the other Memong, that were over 

 350 yards long. 1 The Subansiri Daflas bury their dead within the precincts of the 

 village, the Abors and Galongs just outside it. Graves, as a rule, are below the group 

 of houses, but at Ledum it was noticed that they were quite close to the water supply 

 and just above the village. The Mishmis bury dead freemen just outside their 

 villages, but sometimes the bodies are said to be burnt. None of the Abor villages 

 that I have visited had all-round defensive perimeters, but many of them had short 

 bamboo palisades furnished with chevaux-de-frise guarding the approaches, or strong 

 log and stone stockades; and the village site, as a rule, had been selected with an eye 

 to good natural defences, such as inaccessible cliffs on two or three sides of it. The 

 granaries 2 are built outside the group of dwelling houses. Near the plains the villages 

 are small, numbering from 20 to 50 houses. The largest community, the Balek group, 

 is made up of six villages aggregating 160 houses. Many single villages further north 

 are as large, or larger, than this. 



There is a great similarity in the appearance of all the hillmen's houses along the 

 frontier, whether Dana, Galong, Abor or Mishmi. Galong houses however are raised con- 

 siderably higher off the ground than any others that have been visited. The number 

 of people accustomed to live together under the same roof in the various tribes causes 

 the Mishmi and Dana houses in particular to be very much longer than those of the 

 Abors, amongst whom one family to a house is the rule. In consequence of this Abor and 

 Galong villages appear to be far larger than those of their more gregarious neighbours. 

 Two able-bodied men to a house would seem to be a fair estimate for Galong and 

 Abor villages, amongst the western Daflas from 4 to 20, whilst amongst the Subansiri 

 Daflas and the Mishmis 20 might, in the chief's houses, prove far too low an estimate. 

 Slaves live in the house with the family, and are therefore included in this total. 

 Chulikata and Bebijia houses are sometimes over 300 feet long. Amongst the Min- 

 yongs up the Dihang valley each son or near relative when he marries builds his house 

 end on and almost touching the parental gable, or prolongs the row of family houses 

 that has already been formed, presenting the appearance of one long continuous build- 

 ing. The Galongs do not follow this custom. Abor houses are raised, as a rule, from 



1 On a visit to Meybo (Membu) in 1914 I found two aquaducts each over 1000 yards long. 



2 See Peal's remarks. J.A.S.B., Vol. UV, Part III, No. i, 1896, p. 12, with reference to granaries in general. 



