Kuki (Indic people); Lushai (Asian people); Lushai language
The remaining clans still adhere to the ancient style, their houses
being raised some four or five feet off the ground on posts. The
walls are of planks, and the roofs of thatching grass; they remind
one much of the Falam houses. Round each village are clustered
the granaries--small houses raised well off the ground and placed
sufficiently far from the dwelling houses to make them fairly safe
from fire. Where the houses are raised sufficiently pigs and poultry
live under them; but cattle sheds are common, most of these clans
having learnt the value of cows and buffaloes from the Manipuris. The
handsome breed of goats so common in a Lushai village is seldom if
ever seen, but animals of an inferior sort are generally kept.
The Chiru, Kom, and Tikhup still build zawlbuks. No woman is allowed
to enter these buildings, which, besides being the dormitories of
the unmarried men, are used for drinking bouts. They are externally
very like those built by the Lushais, but have several fireplaces
evidently used for cooking, and the general hearth in the centre is
absent. Some of the clans which do not now build zawlbuks say that
they believe their forefathers did so. In the absence of the zawlbuk
the young men generally sleep in the houses of well-to-do villagers,
but among the Purum I am told that "if a man has one unmarried son
and one unmarried daughter, the boy goes to sleep at the house of
a man who has an unmarried daughter; though they sleep in this way
they are very careful about their characters." Have we here stumbled
on the real origin of the "young men's house"--a desire to prevent
incest? The young women also have houses in which they gather at time
of festivals, but they do not sleep there.
The rotchem, the Lushai mouth-organ, is found among all these clans,
but rather smaller and ornamented with fowls' feathers. The Anal make
a speciality of long bamboo trumpets, on which they perform with
considerable skill, producing sounds indistinguishable from those
of a bugle. The trumpets are from four to five feet long, and have
bell-shaped mouths made of gourds.
Most of these clans have adopted various dances from the Manipuris,
their own dancing being of the monotonous nature common to the Lushais
and Kukis.
In dress and method of wearing the hair Manipuri influence is also
noticeable, the men generally wearing coats and loin-cloths and
turbans. The women are more conservative and adhere to the short
petticoat. The hair is generally worn very much in the Lushai fashion,
but the Chiru men are an exception to this. They part their hair in
the middle and brush it down straight, and trim it level with the
bottom of the ears. They bind a narrow fillet of cane round the head
slightly above the eyes. The Kolhen women gather the hair into two
heavy rolls, which hang down in front of each ear. The Tikhup maidens
have adopted the Manipuri method of dressing the hair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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