live beyond them. “ They are a barbarous, active, muscular
race, short, of stouter and darker complexion than the
Choomeeas, and, like them, hare thé, peculiar features of the
natives of the eastern parts of Asia, namely; the flat nose,
small eyes, and broad round face.” According to their tradition,
they and the Mugs are the offspring öf thè same
progenitor, the Mugs of the oldest and the Kukis of the
youngest son, who being neglected had the name of Luncta,
or “ the naked” entailed on himself and his posterity. Mr.
Macrae confirms this tradition by assuring, us that the
Mugs and Kukis mutually understand each other, their
language being nearly the same. $ The Kukis are all hunters
and warriors, are armed with bows and arrows/^build
their villages, calloct Parahs, on the steepest mountains, and
have the law ofrevenge'for blood, which they carry so far as
to extend it to the brute creation, an dieven to inanimate
objects.” They preserve the bodies of thpir^dead till a particular
day, when annually they^eelebrate* their funerals',
by burning their bodies.* They believe in a future-statë^f
retribution for good and bad actions. The deity termed
by them “ Khogein Pootteany” is the creator ?of the world :
they chiefly worship an inferior divinity or mpdiator,tEr
whose image, placed under a tree, they sacrifice ■ goats.y
The Kukis were by Dr. F. B. Hamiltoiinidentified with
the Nagas, who are known to be à people Vëry widely
spread over the hilly countries bordering on Cachar and
Manipûr. They extend from the 23° to the 27° north
latitude. The most northern of these tribes, the Tikliya
Nagas, settled under the parallel of Kolyabar, are said to be
cannibals.^ The Nagas are described by Pemberton as a
bold and independant race who live in poverty in mountainous
tracts remote from the inhabitants of the cultivated
countries, where they have resisted in their inaccessible
villages repeated attempts to subject them, made by the
* It is remarked that a similar custom prevails among some American tribes
as noticed in Bertram’s Travels.—Asiatic Researches, vol. 7, page 195.
t Asiatic'Researches, vol. 7 .
î Dr. F. Buchanan Hamilton’s Account of Assam, in the Annals of Oriental
literature, London.
neighbouring , rajahs of Tipperab, Cachar and Manipür.
The northern tiibest-of Nagas bear in their whole exterior
the typêtgpf the races akin to the Chinese, but have a more
animated expression. Their complexion is of a; light copper
colour; their hair of remarkable stiffness; their limbs are
very, strong and'mascular ; they are indefatigable in labour
and in their wanderings over the mountains. The women
are as laborious as the men. Their complexion is not quite
so:-dark, and they wear their hair longer. rheir houses are
wèll; built and clean,..situated on the tops of the hills. The
fNagas. on the'southern side of the river Barah, who are
called,Kutschung; differ in some respects from the above-
described tribes who.are to the;northward of that river.
The Kufschung or southern Nagas are of smaller stature and
not so well made ; of-dark complexion : they are a savage,
blood-thirsty people, and have contributed a great share to
the depopulation of the countries inhabited by neighbouring
peaceable tribes. They-live upon rice and game, and never
taste milk, which, like the Garros, they consider as an
unwholesome and weakening diet.*
... <Wê have some further accounts of. the Nagas in a memoir
by T. Fisher, published in Wilson’s; .accounMf the Burmese
war. This writer, as Professor Wilson observes, principally
refers to the more barbarous southern Nagas, who are the
people in South Cachar called Kukis* and who inhabit the
mountains near Tipperab, Chittagory, and Sylhet. He says
that they differ much in person and countenance from the
neighbouring inhabitants, meaning the Hindoos, and not less
in manners and character. They are of dwarfish stature,
broad-shouldered, and have slender limbs and a dark-brown
complexion. Their countenance is expressive# . their forehead
low; their eyes are small, dark, and animated :;; their
nose small, flat as in the faces of the Chinese; their mouth
small, and well shaped; their ears large and lengthened by
weights; their hair dark and, spare; heard scanty. Most
of these southern tribes are of wandering habits and seldom
remain many months in the same place. The northern
* Pemberton’s Memoir of the Nagas in Wilson’s Burmese War.—Ritter’s
Asien, vol. 4, page 871.