40 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



encouragement in his own village. It is quite certain that the headship of the village 

 is not hereditary, nor is there any trace whatsoever of the interesting custom of auto- 

 matic colonization by the elder sons of the chief and the assumption of authority by the 

 youngest that exists amongst Nagas and Lushais. 



The position and influence of women throughout the hills is remarkable, in spite 



of the fact that wives are, to all intents and purposes, 

 bought and sold, and that they are debarred from in- 

 heriting property. Besides the considerable influence exerted by the women over 

 village opinion, priestesses are quite common amongst the Abors. Amongst the Sub- 

 ansiri Daflas women are at times actually deputed to take the posa annually distributed 

 by Government ; and I was told by the Daflas that in one village on the Kamla a woman 

 was the leading personality, settled disputes, and would be of the greatest assistance 

 in procuring coolies for me. 



The Miriis (priests) are invariably men amongst the Galongs and Mishmis ; 



amongst the Abors priestesses are frequently met with. 

 The office is not looked upon as hereditary, but the way in 

 which the mantle falls upon the new prophet will be explained when the religion of the 

 people is discussed. 



, There are smithies in almost every village ; the craft is not hereditary, but en- 

 Smiths. tirely dependent on the skill of the individual. 



Agriculture plays the most important part in the life of the people ; flocks and 



herds are largely owned, but the Abors and kindred tribes 

 ' gncu ture ' are in no sense a pastoral people like the Poba nomads 



over the main range to the north. The poorer clans, such as the Midu Mishmis, rely 

 to a greater degree on hunting , but although hunting is regularly and systematically 

 pursued, agriculture is the main support of the tribes along the frontier. The crops 

 vary in quality in different localities from the great agricultural prosperity of the 

 Memongs of Kombong to the miserable stunted Mishmi fields up the Khun river, 

 but, excepting the foot-hill colonists, who have to some extent adopted plains' methods, 

 the hill tribes sow their crops broadcast on stretches of cleared forest land, moving, 

 as the surface soil becomes exhausted, to a fresh area. The utter lack of clan 

 organization may, it is considered, be partly due to the extravagant system of 

 agriculture followed by the hillmen, who live in communities separated from each other 

 by the extensive tracts that are required for their rotation of " jhums." This 

 isolation may possibly have done much to foster the prevailing spirit of self-interest 

 and independence that hardly ever sees as far as the next village. 



Time is reckoned by the number of years since a tract was cleared for cultivation 

 or, for longer periods, by the number of times any particular piece of land has been 

 cultivated. In villages established within the memory of the older inhabitants every- 

 thing is dated from the founding of the village : ' ' In the Gamship of So and So " is 

 another classical method of recording local events. 



The Gam of the village decides on the tract to be cleared ; the men of the village 

 all turn out, cut down, collect and burn the undergrowth and fell the trees. This 



