ASSAM AND THOSE OF TIIE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
233 
house to house, and drag them about ^dancing, singing, drinking and 
boasting. Instead of merely hanging the heads to their persons like 
the Dayak warrior on similar occasions they mangle and insult them, 
cursing them, throwing rice and liquor on them, and saying “ call 
your father, mother and relations to come here and join you in eat¬ 
ing rice and drinking spirits, when ,we will kill them with the same 
sword.” When this feast of victory has continued for three or four 
days, the heads are suspended on Nahor trees in the village of the 
Khonhao or president of the clan, the other villages not being* en¬ 
titled to the honor. The Nagas who have taken a part in the work 
of massacre are then tatooed. Fresh marks on particular parts are 
impressed according to the numbers of persons each has killed. 
When they have recovered from the effects of the operation a great* 
feast is given, and the heads are taken down from the trees and 
strewed on a platform for display. As with the Dayak every death 
must be revenged by taking the head of one of the murderers tribe, 
even though two or three generations may sometimes elapse before 
the retaliation can be effected. 
We already knew that the practise of head hunting prevails a- 
mongst the Kookies to the north east of Chittagong, where it pre¬ 
serves the very form in which we find it amongst the Dayak .* Its 
existence is now ascertained to the confines of Thibet. The practice 
of tatooing may be traced from the same latitude through Burmah 
* The Kookies or Lunctas are a tribe who inhabit the mountains to the 
N. E. of Chittagong. They make their houses as dose to each other as pos¬ 
sible and large enough to accommodate four or five families. They are on 
stages of bamboos six feet above the ground. When they attack another 
village their mode of proceeding is similar to that of the Nagas above des¬ 
cribed, whatever their superiority may be. u They seldom spare either age 
or sex but occasionally preserve and adopt children.” “ The heads of the 
slain ihey carry in great triumph to their paroh (fortified village) when 
the warriors are met on their arrival by men, women and children with 
much rejoicing,” In negociating marriages the number of heads of ene¬ 
mies and wild animals which the young man can produce in proof of his 
prowess is mentioned amongst his recommendations. “ Each warrior has 
his own particular pile of heads and according to the number it consists of, 
his character as an hunter and warrior is established in the tribe.” Ben¬ 
galee woodcutters on the borders of the jungles in the Rumganceah and 
Aurungubad districts are frequently surprised by Kookies who invariably 
cut off and carry away their heads. 
Mr. Macrae’s account of the Kookies, (1798.) Asiatic Researches YOU 
vii. p. 183. 
