First of all we have the Naga traditions of origin themselves,
indicating, as one would expect to find, almost all the points of the
compass. From Tamlu northwards there are the various Konyak tribes,
whose traditions of origin at least include an ascription of their
origin to the hills to the north and to migration from the plains in
the west or north-west as well, though others, perhaps with Singpho
affinities, reached their present country from the north-east, while
one or two Konyak villages, indistinguishable from the Konyaks
generally in culture, claim an origin from the country to the south of
them at present occupied by Aos. Like the Konyaks, the Aos claim a part
origin from the plains to the north-west, though the bulk of the tribe
claims an autochthonous source at Chongliemdi. [12] The Khoirao again,
or some of them, for the Khoirao Naga villages are hardly uniform
enough to be described as forming a tribe, claim a western origin from
the plains of Assam, and this in particular is the case with Ngari and
perhaps one or two neighbouring villages, who have been less affected
by Memi Angami culture than the others, and of whose connection with
the Semas there can be no doubt. The Semas trace their origin to the
south, and may certainly be connected through the two villages called
“Swemi” (one of which is still Sema though surrounded by Angamis) with
the Khoiraos of Ngari and so with a western origin; [13] while a
connection is to be traced between the Sema with this western origin,
and the Kacharis, Garos, Lynngams and Bhois. The same probably applies
to the Kezami-Angamis, though the infusion of Angami blood and culture
has swamped the Sema characteristics. It is to be noted that Grierson
classes the Khoirao language as Naga-Bodo, and Kacharis, while allowing
Nagas, or at any rate Kacha Nagas, to eat and sleep in the porches of
their houses, refuse to allow Kukis inside them at all, giving as their
reason for this that the Kacharis and the Nagas were originally
descended from two brothers, whereas the Kuki is an alien entirely.
Possibly there may also be some connection between certain elements of
these Bodo tribes and the Manö and Southern Brè tribes of the Karens in
Burma. At the same time the Semas have absorbed numerous villages of
Sangtams who trace their origin to the south or south-east, the
Southern Sangtams putting it ultimately in Burma.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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