THE HILL TRIBES OF INDIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 41

THE HILL TRIBES OF INDIA.

Each tribe has its chief, and the tribes are sufficiently remote from each other, and separated by deep valleys and forest-clad mountains, as to prevent their ordinarily coming into collision one with another. Between some, however, friendship exists, wives are furnished, and supplies in time of need ; with others there are feuds and occasional fights ; while in time of war with the British a large number may unite to secure their common interests. The chieftainship is not hereditary, bat elective, but the chief's nearest relative succeeds him on his death if acceptable to the people. The chief receives tribute in kind, and is thus rendered independent of labour. His word is law in peace and war. There are no caste distinctions among the people. A tribe may consist of 400 or 500 souls, but sometimes of as many as 2000. The features of the people throughout the country are decidedly Mongolian ; complexion light brown or olive. The height of a mm is generally sft 6irj, of a woman rather less. Their figures are broad, and limbs strong. Water being scarce on the mountain tops they wash little, and they look habitually dirty. All smoke inveterately, even children of five years of age, and their clothes reek with rank tobacco smoke. The men use short pipe 3 made of bamboo; tho women use a more elaborate one, the bowl of clay communicating by a stem with a receptacle for water, through which the smoke passes to a long 1 , slender mouthpiece of orna'oental metal. The water in thß receptacle when fouled by tobacco juice id emptied into small gourds stoppered with a plug of wood. These gourds are carried by the men in cotton bags with other necessary articles for travelling, and a mouthful of the contents occasionally sipped, and the mouth rinsed therewith, when it is spat out. It is considered polite to offer a sip from this gourd to a friend, as a pinch of snuff was formerly in Europe.

The Lushais and Chins are all warriors and hunters. Formerly armed with bows and arrows, spears, daos or hatchets, and shields of oxhide, they have for the laßt 40 or 50 years taken a step forward in civilisation in securing the old flintlock muskets of the British army, which some enterprising contractors no doubt introduced through Rangoon. The country is not supplied with much gunpowder from the seaports ; hence the natives have been driven to make it for themselves. Sulphur is obtained for Burma ; charcoal readily made on the spot; and nitre produced by urine belcg passed through baskets of wood ashes. The powder thus compounded is a weak explosive, and a very large charge must be used. Raids are common upon each other, and likewise, until lately, upon peaceable villages in the plain country bordering the hills, The Chins and Lushais always endeavour to surprise an enemy ; they travel by night, and lie concealed in the dense undergrowth of the forest during the day, No fire is lighted le3t the smoke should betray their whereabouts, and cooked victuals are carried. They attack a village in the grey light of early dawn, cuttirg down all men and such women and children as they do not care to take away as captives ; the village is fired, the heads of the slain carried off as trophies, which are much pnzdd. The value of such is enhanced by the notion current that human sacrifices are' necessary to the success of their agricultural operations. The return of a successful raiding party is celebrated with shouts by the women and children, an ample feast of beef and spirits is partaken of, and a general carousal follows. The bloody heads are piled in a heap as the proudest spoils of war.

There being no post, and no means of writing letters, a messenger must be sent if one tribe wishes to communicate with another ; pieces of bamboo cut in a peculiar way are sometimes used to denote the character of the message. These wild people have not unnaturally mingled the traditions of the birth of the race with prevailing religious notion"*. One tribe believes that its progenitor came out of a cave in the Lushai country. He married God's daughter. At that time men, birds, and beasts spoke one language. The country caught fire, and the races of men became scattered in the darkness that succeeded that fire, and their languages became different. There is a Supreme Creator, Patyen, and an inferior cod, Khozing, patron of the Lushais. The Kbyeno, however, say that the Mouozing are creator* and rule all things ; they are the father and mother who grow on the earth as two trees in a fl-ld, one evergreen, the other dry. As might be anticipated from their hazy religious instincts, morality is absent. Thieving is regarded as a floe art. To be found out is a crime. The treatment of the dead varies slightly in different parts of the oouotry. With Borne the corpse is put upon a raised stage and kept there until a certain day in the spring, being watched in the meantime ; it is then burnt, and a feast is given by the family of the deceased. One tribe, the Howlongs, hang Up the dead body for seven days ; others dry it over a slow fire, wrap it in a shroud, and bury it. Afterwards it is dug up, the bones cleaned, and put in an earthen vessel. Some tribes preserve the head dried. — Gentleman's Magazine.