Closely associated with terraced cultivation is the custom of erecting
megalithic monuments. The erectors of the most numerous monoliths are
the tribes practising terraced cultivation, though Kacha Nagas
(Lyengmei) and Kabuis put up little dolmens and occasional monoliths,
while the Lhotas and Rengmas proper, also having no terraced
cultivation, yet erect monoliths and alignments of monoliths in all
their villages. North and east of the two latter tribes, however, few
Nagas seem to put up either, and the place of stones in ceremonial is
apparently taken by wooden and Y-shaped posts, used by Semas, Sangtams,
Kalyo-Kengyu, Chang and possibly other tribes, while the Ao uses
round-topped posts or posts with a divided top. [30] The Garos, it may
be noticed, also use the Y-shaped post, while the similarity of both
the Y-shaped Sema post and the round-topped Ao post respectively to the
bifurcated and round-topped stones left by the old Kachari kings at
Dimapur is too close for mere coincidence. It should be added that Mr.
Mills tells us that Lhotas occasionally substitute a Y-shaped post for
a stone in their ceremonials where no stones suitable for erection can
be found, while there is a kindred of a clan in Yekhum village which
migrated from further east and which habitually erects posts, as it is
not allowed to erect stones. [31] In building, again, while the
Angamis, Tangkhuls, Semas and other tribes south of them build on the
ground, the Aos and other tribes to the north build on a bamboo
platform or “machan.” The Lhota method is a sort of compromise, as when
he builds on a “machan” he covers the floor with earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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