Finally, there is the story of the hero Ramphan and his dao. According to one tradition Ramphan is supposed to have lived when the Lhotas and Rengmas were still one tribe, and some Rengmas from Themokedima once even came to Akuk and claimed the dao, which is still preserved there as an heirloom. It is a long, thin piece of iron about two feet long and three inches broad. The spike of the haft is long and evidently protruded through the wooden haft, which probably existed once. It is rarely shown to strangers, and never to Southern Lhotas, on the ground that they approach Akuk from the direction of the Land of the Dead. The story given below is that told by the present possessors of the dao, and places the scene of the exploit at Longcham, an abandoned site on Wokha Hill, whence the Lhotas are supposed to have spread into the country now occupied by them. The Story of Ramphan. When the Lhotas were living at Longcham a tiger caused them grievous loss. One day it killed all of a party of nine women. Among them was Ramphan’s wife, who was about to become a mother. At this disaster all clamoured to abandon the village, but Ramphan said he would go and face the tiger. First he put on each of his fingers a section of thin bamboo. Then he took his long dao and lay down among the corpses of the nine women and waited for the tiger. Soon the tiger came and went to each corpse and ate a little of the flesh and laid it on one side, saying as he did so, “This one I killed on her way to the fields,” or “This one I killed when she went to cut wood,” or “This one I killed on her way to fetch water,” or “This one I killed when she went to pick jungle leaves,” or “This one I killed when she went to get vegetables,” or “This one I killed when she was going down to fish.” At last he came to Ramphan and said, “This one I do not remember,” and picked him up and laid him aside, and then settled himself down to sleep. Then one by one Ramphan began to snap the pieces of bamboo on his fingers to see if the tiger was asleep or not. But at each snap the tiger pricked up his ears. At last when he had snapped nine of the pieces of bamboo and there was only one left, Ramphan thought to himself, “If the tiger is not asleep when I snap this I am done for.” But when he snapped the last remaining piece of bamboo the tiger did not prick up its ears, for it was fast asleep. Then Ramphan rose up and cut off the tiger’s head with his long dao, and climbed with it up to the top of a high spur and shouted the shout of a warrior who has taken a head. But he was sad when he thought of his wife lying dead in the valley below. And he called to his village men and said, “I have slain our enemy. Do not desert your village. Wait for me.” But when he reached home he found that the villagers had already abandoned the place. From far away they shouted back to him, “We have sprinkled the back of one of our sows with rice husks, which fall as she walks. Follow the track of that and