SAVAGE TRIBES IN STRANGE LANDS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 24, 11 June 1892, Page 598

SAVAGE TRIBES IN STRANGE LANDS.

NO. I.—THE NAGAS. (SEE FRONTISPIECE.) A Naga village, as shown in our front page illustration, is not utterly unlike a Maori pa at first sight, but the Nagas are very unlike the Maoris. They are a wild race of aboriginals divided into tribes, some of whom are inoffensive, and others who are decidedly the reverse. Taken as a whole they are as savage and wild a race as may be met with in the neighbourhood of Assam. Their territory—the Naga Hills—is on the borderland between Assam and Manipur. The entire population is about 93,000. They are a great fighting race, and, as will be noticed in the picture, like all other savage races, particularly fond of gaudy war-paint and grotesque self-adornment. Agriculture is conducted in a rude fashion, the only instrument of tillage being the ddo or hill knife. Rice and millet are the main crops. In some places great skill is displayed in irrigation. The tea plant is indigenous, and a great number of natives are employed in the tea gardens. Manufacture is almost unknown, the only articles made being a sort of rough cloth and the spear heads, which are forged in the most clumsy and primitive fashion. Trade conducted by means of barter is increasing eveiy year. Some of the tribes are brutal in their warfare, and till recently were continually ‘ighting, making it the rule to carry off their victims’ heads. Several British officers have been murdered there, but the introduction of British Administration has done an immense amount of good. The Eastern Nagas are, in fact, rapidly becoming civilised.