474 
ago the Angami, seeking a home, had consulted omens often but in vain. 
Finding at length a favourable site, they called it Kohi, “ turning”, from 
their wanderings—hence their name^). This village, now the seat of the 
British government, is one of the largest. It consists of seven clans and 
contains 900 houses. The Angami estimate a village by its houses, though 
a house may contain several families. A house averages four to five indi¬ 
viduals ; altogether Kohima contains about 4000 Nagas. Few villages are 
so large, 300 houses making a large village; many contain but 30 to 40 
houses, and on the lower spurs near the plains often no more than ten. 
They have little history. Perhaps they once paid tribute to Manipur. A 
carved monolith near Kohima is still termed “the Manipur stone.” It 
bears the symbols of the sun, and the sacred bull, with an inscription 
round these. On a flat slab at its base is the carved imprint of two human 
feet. On the Basama, a spur high above the sites of villages, some ruined 
walls are said by the Asamese to be the remains of a Burmese occupation 
fort. Their appearance does not bear this out; the Angami explanation 
too, is the common-place one that a clan of Mozama, at feud with the rest 
of the village, temporarily retired to this spot. 
Whatever was their attitude to former rulers of Assam, the British 
found them raiding annually on the plains. They first came in contact 
with Europeans in 18322); between then and 1851 ten expeditions had to 
be sent against them. Government was desirous of establishing political 
control over the tribes, not of subduing them, but as raiding still took 
place,—twenty raids occurring between 1851 and 1866—a station was 
established within the hills in 18672). This was intended as a point 
whence raiding could be checked, and as a base for survey operations. No 
more raids took place towards Assam, but on several occasions survey 
parties were attacked and, oftener than once, more or less completely cut 
off. This and renewed raiding into Cachar, to the S. W., led in 1878 to 
another expedition and the establishment of the British station in the midst 
of the strongest villages. Next year, however, the British magistrate was 
killed, and a final expedition—the twelfth—was sent against the Angamis^). 
After some hard fighting this ended, in 1880, in the subjection and 
1 ) The termination -ma in proper names means man, inhabitant. 
2 ) Butler : Travels & Adventures in Assam, (London 1855) p. 102. This is the 
first work in which the Angami Nagas are described from personal observation. 
3 ) Hunter : Imp. Gazetteer of India, loc. cit. 
4 ) Hunter: Imp. Gazetteer of India, loc. cit. 
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