50 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



Fortunately for the British Empire and the corporals guards that as a rule are called 

 upon to ward or enlarge its boundaries, the warlike nature of a race decreases in direct 

 proportion to the difficult nature of the country it inhabits. 



Fights between two villages, or even more extensive operations, occasionally 

 take the form of an engagement hardly distinguishable from a brawl, in which swords 

 are used, followed by a village raid in which prisoners may possibly be taken for slaves ; 

 hostilities then become desultory. A little raiding may be done by bands of young 

 men from the villages concerned, but the main operations of the war consist in block- 

 ing the roads with immensely thick barriers of felled trees and thickly-packed brush- 

 wood, and in defending the approaches to the villages with stone-shoots and short 

 stockades. Stone-shoots are platforms made of bamboo piled up with stones. These 

 are built out over cliffs hanging above the path to be defended and held up by a cane 

 rope which is cut to let down the avalanche of stones on to the enemy below. Shoots 

 are generally built in lines and the jungle is cleared to give the stones a free run ; but 

 notwithstanding this they are not easily discovered from below. This form of 

 defence is a favourite one amongst the Abors and Mishmis. 



The tribesmen are of course expert woodsmen and their system of scouting is 

 excellent. Clearings are made along the path that is being watched and scouts on the 

 opposite hillside are able to observe anything that moves along it. These sentries 

 relieve each other at intervals. When watching an enemy the hill- men almost in- 

 variably have their dogs with them ; these range ahead as scouts and frequently 

 proclaim to their opponents the proximity of an otherwise entirely unobtrusive foe. 



Obstinate vendetta resembling the blood feud of the Pathan are believed to be 

 common amongst the Mishmis. The Chulikata and Bebijia Mishmis are wilder and 

 more primitive than the tribes to the west of them with whom we have come in contact, 

 and amongst whom the wild justice of revenge does not seem to be a prominent feature. 



Regarding the methods of making peace Ruksang of Mishing told me that when 



Riga and Kebang, in Minmaw and Takom's time, were 



Treaties b b> > 



tired of fighting peace was established as follows : a tree was 

 planted in the ground, about midway between the two villages, and the men of Riga 

 and Kebang sat down on either side of it ; each party brought mithan and dankis ; 

 the mithan were exchanged and eaten, using the dankis the other village had brought 

 to cook them in : and peace has reigned between them ever since. 



It has already been observed that no records are made, either in stone, wood, or 

 metal. The tongue of the Daflas, Galongs, Abors and Mishmis is a spoken language 

 entirely ; nor do the hill tribes, by painting or carving, supply the deficiency 



In spite of this they are remarkably quick in recogniz- 

 signs and Messages. ing their frkndS} or their own features, in photographs. 



They are, moreover, very clear and surprisingly accurate in the rough maps they make 

 on the ground with a sharp stick. The Abors indicate the gradients of a road by taking 

 a stick and breaking it into an irregular saw-like outline. The ' ' sections ' ' thus made 

 are quite excellent. The Daflas cut bits out of a leaf, the jagged edge representing 

 the gradients of the path. 



