[The Ralte.] This clan is found scattered in the Lushai villages to the north of Aijal, in which neighbourhood there are also one or two villages under Ralte chiefs. I have already--in Part I., Chapter V, para. 1--given the legend regarding the repeopling of the world and the closing of the exit from the Chhinglung owing to the loquacity of the pair of Ralte. The names of these mythical ancestors were Hehua and Leplupi. Their two sons were Kheltea and Siakenga, who quarrelled over the distribution of their father's goods, which Kheltea, the younger, had taken, thus conforming to Lushei custom, and set up separate villages, and from them have sprung the two eponymous families into which the Ralte clan is divided. The Khelte have always occupied a predominant position, and all the chiefs belong to this family. Lutmanga, Kheltea's youngest son, is said to have made the first cloth from the fibre of the Khawpui creeper. He collected a community at Khuazim, a hill north of Champhai, and from him all the Ralte chiefs are descended. In the early years of the nineteenth century the Ralte villages were near Champhai, and Mangkhaia, a Ralte chief of importance, was captured by some Chuango, a family of the Lushei clan, then living at Bualte, above Tuibual (known to the Chin Hills officers as Dipwell). He was ransomed by his relatives, but Vanpuia, the Pachuao chief, not receiving a share, ambushed Mangkhaia on his way home and killed him. According to another account Mangkhaia filed through his fetters with a file given to him in a roll of smoked meat, and was killed as he was escaping. His memorial stone is famous throughout the Hills, and stands at the southern extremity of Champhai. Mangthawnga, father of Mangkhaia, joined Khawzahuala the Zadeng, then living at Tualbung, but, being ill-treated, the Ralte joined Sutmanga, a Thado chief then at Phaileng, who treated them well. Thawnglura, son of Mangthawnga, showed his gratitude to Sutmanga by assisting the Sailo chief Lallianvunga, father of Gnura (Mullah)--whose village Colonel Lister burnt in 1850--to attack him. Sutmanga then fled northwards. It is satisfactory to know that Thawnglura's treachery was rewarded by the enslavement of his clan, who till our occupation of the Hills remained vassals of the Sailos. The Ralte are very quarrelsome, and have to a great extent resisted absorption into the Lushais. In some Sailo chiefs' villages there are so many Ralte that the chief himself speaks their dialect, and though Lushai is understood little else but Ralte is heard in the village. The Ralte are linguistically connected with the Thado, and, like the Thado, they used not to build zawlbuks, but are now following Lushai custom in this respect. The Khelte family has ten and the Siakeng family eleven branches. To the various sums paid to the relatives of the bride among the Lushais, the Ralte add "dawngbul" and "dawngler"--sums of Rs. 3/- paid to her male and female paternal first cousins.