378 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



of his tribe, I agreed with the Gohain, that further delay was to be prefer- 

 red, if we could contrive some more certain arrangement. 



I left our provisions under the care of a few men, and returned to 

 Khosha's, who now seemed really concerned, and promised that if Gha- 

 LtJM's lameness should continue to disable him, he would himself go with 

 us in his place. We found that Ghalt^m had actually set out, and had 

 proceeded to join us by way of the Luri. There now appeared a pros- 

 pect of starting in earnest, and on the 4th I was delighted to advance in 

 the field of discovery. The party was divided, first returning by Rid- 

 ing's, to bring on the things left there, and the other with me proceeding 

 by a much better path down to the Liiris banks, where we awaited the 

 arrival of the others. It was now evident that our going to Naebea's 

 had been contrived only to give him an opportunity of begging, under the 

 pretext of presenting his hog. 



On the banks of the Luri, we marched at a good pace through 

 bamboo jungle on a narrow level strip of ground. The Mishmis informed 

 us that, advantageous as the level was for rice cultivation, they were obliged 

 to relinquish it from suffering in health in the low grounds. We halted 

 in the bed of the Luri on a stone bed, and posted the sentries as if an 

 attack had been expected. The next day we continued to advance up the 

 Luri, sometimes over the large boulders on its banks, and sometimes 

 through fields and grass jungle, a little elevated above the river on the 

 hill's side. From the mouth of the Thaml, where it joins the Luri from 

 the north, we commenced the ascent of a hill by a very difficult path almost 

 blocked up with tree jungle, we afterward passed through several fields, 

 and observed that the crests of the hills opposite were spotted with culti- 

 vation. We halted at the house of a Mizhu Chief named Mosha, who, a 

 few months before, had led an expedition to plunder the Luri Gohain s 

 village, but he failed in his attempt, the accidental firing of a gun in the 



