The Abors.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2, 10 July 1912, Page 10

The Abors.

The Indian coolies employed on ths Abor expedition were from the Naga Hills and the Manipur Hills. Children of Nature, the Nagas are by instinct a race of head-hunters. In this respect they were said to be more dreaded by the A'bors than all the troops of the expedition put together, and the saddest moment the Nagas- with the expedition have ever experienced in their lives was when they learnt that they would not be permittel to take off an occasional head as a trophy for their wives and fanffiies. The refusal, of course, was an absurd concession to insular prejudice that was ignorant of the true significance of the custom. It may seem to us somewhat trivial, but it means a serious tiling for the individual coolie, whose wife will make his existence unendurable on liis return. Possession of an enemy's head is held by the Nagas to be the material sign of a man’s prowess. A lasting stigma attaches to a man’s family, to his wife and children, as also to his v'rilage, if lie fail to secure one.

While we were preparing a surprise for the Abor 'braves, the A'bors themselves were intent upon somewhat similar tactics. Abor surprises are, indeed, many and most varied, and, though their methods are common to most of th* jungje tribes of India’s north-eastehu frontier, and, in some measure,' therefore —like the “confidence trick” —are always with us, they are, as a rule, pretty successful.

No plaee in the jungle depths, on the river bank, or on the mountain side, wa’ so innocent in appearance that it could not conceal some effective reminder ot the Abor methods of warfare. In the main these pits took the form of aha!' low pits lined with poisoned pangies-* fire-hardened stakes of pointed baanboOi and sufficiently sharpener! to pierce the sole of any ordinary boot. The #cti<‘> of the poison was very rapid, sometimes a mere matter of minutes, and rarely more than six hours.

A variation on the “foot-pit,” as it wa» called, was an ingenious adaptation <•» the man-trap, fitted with arrows > B place of the customary gun. In tin* unwieldy, though pretty reliable, contri** anoe two hollow lengths of bamboo, eacjl fitted with a poisoned arrtfw, were fix**