82 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



is to give security to the cattle and to increase the herds. On the day fixed 

 for the beginning of the agam the villagers assemble at the Moshup bringing with 

 them apong and rice, which they eat there. For the next five days the men of 

 the village busy themselves in renewing the cattle fences used throughout the 

 country to prevent the mithan straying from their feeding grounds in the jungle into 

 the fields. During this period it is taboo for the women to go to the .fields. Should 

 any woman break this taboo it is believed that the cattle belonging to her household 

 will break through the fences and destroy the crops. On the sixth day of the agam, 

 the men of the village make new mithan ropes of the usual jungle fibres On the 

 seventh day and following days if necessary, the cattle are all rounded up and brought 

 in from the jungle. The satkia hingak ceremony, or operation, is then performed on 

 the calves. This consists in cutting the beasts' ears, a distinctive mark being 

 adopted by each sept. 



In the Abor hills and as far west as the Dafla country the holok tree is regarded 



as the abode of the Wood Spirit. His home, up the Suban- 



The Spirit of the Forest. . . . . -, . « ,, . T 



sin, was pointed out to me m an immense hollow tree. In 

 the Abor hills this tree deity is a most sinister spirit. The Gam of Kalek called this 

 spirit Pom-ti-are, but from the statements made by a man from Riu and by the Gam of 

 Yagrung (a most intelligent and widely travelled blackguard) I gathered that it was 

 held to be a manifestation of Epom, who apparently haunts the high hills, the jungle in 

 general and the holok tree in particular. This spirit is wont to disguise himself as a 

 man and, appearing in the form of a kinsman from a distant village, lures some un- 

 fortunate away into the jungle and kills him. So when any one is missing and cannot 

 be accounted for, the people of the village go out into the forest armed with swords, 

 bows, and arrows, to look for him. And they go to the holok tree and say to it, 

 ' ' O holok tree, give us back our brother and we will make to you a sacrifice." Then, 

 to compel the holok tree to urge the spirit that dwells within it to restore its victim , 

 the villagers hack at the trunk with their swords and shoot their arrows into its limbs. 

 After this demonstration they go back to their village and await the home-coming of 

 the wanderer ; hope is not abandoned for about two months. If the man returns 

 a mithan or pig is given as a thanksgiving feast, that is unaccompanied by any rites 

 or religious ceremony. The belief in the minds of the Abors that associates the 

 holok tree with the spirit of the woods as the power responsible for the death of 

 these unfortunates, is strengthened in their minds by the occasional discovery of 

 human bones at the roots of this particular tree. From what is known of the Dihang 

 valley colonies these bones cannot be the traces of old Abor graves • they may be 

 regarded, almost with certainty, as the remains of a pre- Abor race. The skulls 

 would possess some scientific interest and it is hoped that it may be possible to obtain 

 a specimen. 



This Memoir on Galong and Abor has been written with the recognition that 



it is a very incomplete account of their lives and their 



Conclusion. . ,...,-. , . . .. 



religion ; but it is based on notes made m the country and 

 not extracted from the works of others. As regards the religion enough has been 



