ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 401 



though not acknowledged by them, it is evident that some few, either 

 through their superior wealth, hereditary esteem, or real ability, exert a 

 very strong influence on the rest, and can readily sway them to any measure. 

 It would be supposed that this would greatly facilitate the gaining of any 

 point at issue with the Abors, but the extreme jealousyof the " Raj" and 

 vigilant watchfulness to preserve their democratical rights, render it a 

 matter very difficult to manage to bribe these influential men, and my want 

 of success amongst them I attribute entirely to my insufficient knowledge 

 of their habits, and, consequently, of the proper mode of intriguing with 

 them. It is singular to observe in them such different shades of extreme 

 rudeness and civilized observance of laws, enacted and allowed by them 

 to be necessary for the good of the community. The purpose of the 

 primary article of their clothing (which consists of a triangular piece of 

 coarse cloth, six inches long and four or five broad at the end, by which it 

 is suspended to a string tied round the loins) is vitiated every time they 

 sit down, but of this they seem perfectly careless, indeed, as we discovered 

 in the evening, when prompted by curiosity to enter the Morang again, the 

 bachelors are in the habit of basking by the side of their wood fires 

 without any covering at all, and during the day, I had remarked that in 

 the midst of a crowd of both sides the men did, indeed, avoid wetting their 

 next neighbour's leg, but observed no other of the ordinary precautions 

 of decency. However, while many others of the mountain tribes seem 

 superior to them in some points, I have not elsewhere seen them equally 

 ready for a labor like that of constructing the cane suspension bridge. 

 There is more order than usual also, in the regular mode of building their 

 granaries. They have equitable laws to make public burthens (such as 

 the presentation of a hog voted us that day, or erecting a new house for 

 any member, when assistance is required,) fall equally on all. Of their 

 religion, I learned no more than that, like the Mishmis, they occasionally 

 sacrifice to a deity supposed to reside in the woods and mountains. The 

 conical mountain, called Regam, they believe to be the abode of a rather 



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