ABORS AND GALONGS. 43 



well-made is a good and refreshing drink; although not nearly so intoxicating as the 



Naga rice beer, it is potent enough to ' ' corn ' ' the noble savage within a reasonable time. 



All the tribes possess herds of mithan and numbers of pigs and fowls. Mithan 



are owned by individuals and are not , as was stated in an 



Livestock. J ' 



account that appeared in the public press, common pro- 

 perty. In addition to herds of mithan the Galongs, more especially the Memong clan, 

 own herds of red cattle of a very good stamp : these are similar to Assamese cattle. 

 Daflas and Galongs have numbers of goats. But goats are only seen in the 

 Abor country very occasionally. The hill-tribes do not milk their cattle 1 ; they 

 use them as money and as sacrifices to be eaten at ceremonial feasts. The Galongs, 

 unlike the Abors, eat dogs, and indeed any and every animal save the tiger. % Rats are 

 looked upon as a great delicacy. Wild birds, beasts and fish are trapped or shot with 

 arrows, domestic animals are strangled, mithan by being hanged, pigs by strangulation 

 between two sticks thrust into the ground and pressed inwards. Mithan have a rope 

 tied round their necks ; they are then driven up to an inclined stage on which the Abors 

 haul until the beast is strangled. This method of hanging is an interesting parallel 

 to the Tibetan sacrifices at Lhasa where the animal with a noose round its neck is driven 

 over the edge of a precipice. Another method is to half strangle the animal and then 

 throw the rope over the branch of a tree and pull on the rope until the unfortunate beast 

 is dead. 



Birds, goats and pigs are burnt whole and unskinned in the fire before being eaten, 

 • „ , they can hardly be said to be cooked. When travelling in 



Preparation of Food. ° 



the Subansiri valley I saw quantities of dried buffalo 

 meat being brought up from the plains to supplement the local supplies of 

 mithan, pig and goat. This dried meat the Daflas seem to prefer imperfectly 

 cured. Rice, with some relish, and dried fish or meat is the staple Abor-Galong 

 food. They also make a kind of bread of rice or maize. Rice is prepared in bamboo 

 chungas, into which water is poured, the rice being enclosed in leaf envelopes. The 

 changas are leant against a horizontal stick fastened over the fire andfrequently turned. 

 When the chungas are charred all round the rice is found to be well cooked. Eggs are 

 roasted. Prawns and various insects, especially cinnamon beetles s and locusts, are 

 eaten, and the hill people collect fungi, some of which are actually poisonous, and eat 

 them after boiling them several times in water. Blackberries and raspberries and other 

 wild berries, plantains, wild mangoes and potatoes and other roots are collected and 

 used for food. The hill-men eat two meals a day and refresh the inner man between 

 the morning and evening repast by frequent drinks of apong. 



Every community does not necessarily possess a smith, nor do all the tribes weave 



cotton fabrics on the loom to make wearing apparel ; but 



Manufactures. _ . 



all the hill-tribes show great skill in making basket work 



1 The Memba people of course milk their cattle. 



* See Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal, p. 33, for an exception to this rule of the hill tribes. 



3 The head of this insect is poisonous and is rejected by the hill-men. 



