ABORS AND GALONGS. 55 



who is associated with hunting, plantains and the produce of the jungle generally, is 

 held responsible for the illness in question. The Galongs impose similar taboo on 

 recovery from illness. The present religious belief of Abors and Galongs is dis- 

 tinctly non-totemistic ; and even such light as is thrown on their origin by the 

 fragments of mythology that have been collected does not disclose a totemic past as 

 defined by Lang in Social Origins. 



The Galongs, Abors and Mishmis are exogamous but this custom does not now 

 . . appear to be governed by taboo of totem kin. Nor does 



Marriage Consanguinity. x A ° 



the observation of the primal law of the family preclude 

 the free co-habitation of the unmarried girls and youths of the community, 

 a laxity that may be compared with the customs of certain of the Chin tribes.' 

 I was told by the Dobangs that they are prohibited from marrying blood 

 connexions on the male side, which means women of their own group. They marry 

 from amongst their mother's people, who are as a rule of the same clan. A man may 

 not of course marry his sister (being of the same group) nor his mother. If his mother 

 has a married brother he may marry a daughter of the marriage. Polyandry is un- 

 known. Polygamy is customary, slaves and poor people have only one wife, but two 

 wives are very commonly met with. Three — on account presumably of expense — are 

 extremely rare. This custom can perhaps be most clearly illustrated* by the fact that 

 the Abor calls his first wife e-pong and the second e-me, but there appears to be 

 no word for a third wife. The general term for wife is mi-ang. If he wished to do so, 

 there is nothing to prevent a man marrying two sisters simultaneously. Instances 

 of Dobangs marrying Memongs have been noticed and intermarriage between Panggis 

 and Minyongs, and Minyongs and Pasis is also known to occur. I gathered from vari- 

 ous shreds of evidence that the more northern Memong communities living along the 

 Siyom valley may perhaps intermarry with the Boris or Abors, a custom that is not 

 recognized further south ; and Captain Hore told me, that the surviving Miri com- 

 munities in the Abor hills are being merged, by intermarriage, with the Abors. Abors 

 do not marry Mishmis. 3 The Dana clans are clearly subdivided, and it is regretted 

 that the marriage customs of the various Dana groups were not investigated when the 

 Poma valley and Kamla valley communities were visited. 



Amongst the Abors wives, so I was told at Mishing, are obtained in the following 



way : a man takes a fancy to a girl and of course visits 



Courtship. J • . ° 



her ; she may, however, remain a member of her parents' 

 household for several years, sometimes, I have been told, for as long as five years. 

 This intercourse is the Abor form of engagement, and appears to bind the girl to re- 

 ceiving visits only from her would-be husband ; it is on an entirely different footing 

 to the promiscuous intercourse allowed, before ideas of marriage are entertained, in 

 their own group, amongst the young men and women of any Abor or Galong village. 

 A broken bead, the boy and girl each keeping half, is sometimes regarded as an engage- 



l Census of India, 191 1, Vol. IX, Burma, p. 148. 



i Lorraine's Abor Miri Dictionary, Needham's Grammar, Shaiyang-Miri Language, Assam Secretariat Press, ii 



* Similar laws of affinity exist among the Mishmis. 



