488 
them less if decomposition has set in. And yet there are some cm ions 
restrictions. Only dogs with erect ears—may be eaten, lop eared 
dogs — venaft\h — are not touched. Cats may be eaten, but a penalty is 
involved in their purchase. Tiger may not be eaten by the general com 
munity, but a family on whom one may have inflicted loss must partake 
of its flesh as part of their revenge. 
Household utensils are mainly tubes of bamboo in which the 
flesh is stewed or sodden. It may also be subjected to a rude 
roasting. The most recherche dish is a dog, kept for several days 
without food, then permitted to gorge itself on a full meal of rice. 
When sufficiently “stuffed” it is killed, cooked, and eaten entire. When 
fire is required it is obtained by the friction of a pointed piece of bam¬ 
boo in a hole in another piece. The heat produced sets fire to some 
scrapings of bamboo placed on the edge of the hole. Water is heated 
either by dropping hot stones into it, or by placing the vessel, a bamboo 
lube, directly in the fire. Cotton brought from the lower hills is spun into 
yarn' by a single stick, and woven into cloth on a moveable loom, which 
when used is fixed by one end to a stake, by the other to the worker’s waist. 
Yarns are dyed by “rhum", the product of a Strobilanthes, from blue 
to rusty black; by a madder, from brick red to brown, or yellow 
by a turmeric. The blue colour seems the principal one used by those 
tribes which communicate exclusively with Assam — the Regmas, 
the Lhotas and the Sernas. The Tangkal and other tribes which only 
come in contact with Manipur wear cloths that are mainly red or brown. 
The Angami who are more centrally situated, have blue as their chief 
colour but have borders of yellow and red and fringes of yellow, red, 
and even green. They are acquainted with tobacco but do not grow it. The 
prepared leaf is eagerly eaten ; a cheroot, if lit for them, is awkwardly 
smoked, and soon goes out; what remains is devoured. In the nearly 
related Regma tribe, smoking is habitual on the part of the women, the 
juices being collected in a bamboo cup fixed underneath the bowl of the 
pipe. When full this cup is removed and carried by the men, who do not 
smoke but who exchange sips from it on meeting neighbours.^). 
Religion hardly exists. The sun, moon, and stars which move 
1) This custom prevails among the Kukis, a tribe settled in North Cachar. It also 
exists among the Lushais, who now occupy the country, from which these Kukis were 
displaced. For an account of the custom among the Lushais see Woodthorpe : The 
Lushai Expedition, 1871—72, (Lond. 1S73), p. 77- 
18 
