Even more than their customs the social constitution of several Naga
tribes suggests a diversity of origin. In more than one tribe we find
traces of a dual division crossed by a triple one, and indicating a
division into three elements, either as three separate groups or as two
primary groups, one of which is again split making three. In addition
to these there are odd clans descended from “men caught in the jungle”
and others, as already mentioned. Thus among the Aos are found two
linguistic groups, Chongli and Mongsen, existing side by side in the
same villages though retaining frequently their different languages,
and always, among the women, their differences of tattoo and of
hairdressing. The word for “mother” in the one of these two Ao
languages is ocha (Chongli), in the other avu (Mongsen). Across this
dual division of the Aos we get a triple division into three clans,
Pongen, Langkam and Chami, which are nominally at any rate exogamous
and which run through both the linguistic groups, though the
nomenclature varies, and though the whole exogamous system is somewhat
complicated by subdivision and by adoption from one group to another.
Of the three groups mentioned Pongen is generally recognized as doyen,
while the social position of Chami is usually regarded as decidedly
inferior to the other two. Again, among the Southern Konyak villages at
any rate there seem to be two linguistic and tattoo groups (one of
which tattoos the face of the warrior and the other the chest only)
called Thendu and Thenkoh, while there are said to be also three social
divisions running through both groups, of which the first, called Ang,
[32] corresponds to the Ao “Pongen” and provides hereditary chiefs in
those villages which possess them, though in the case of the Konyak
chief the heir to the chieftainship has to be of Ang blood by both
parents, contrary to the prevailing exogamous system. In the Rengma
tribe we have again two linguistic groups, as among the Aos, existing
side by side sometimes in the same village, and called Inseni-Kotsenu
and Tseminyu respectively. Of these two groups the latter apparently
are again divided into two parts distinguished by the use of different
terms for “mother” (avyo and apfsü). [33] The Angamis are again divided
into two groups commonly known as Thevoma and Thekronoma (or Cheroma)
or Solhima, using the words azo and apfu respectively for “mother,”
although the former term only is in use among the numerous Chakrima
sub-tribe of Angamis, though the distinction between the Thekronoma,
called by them Solhima, and the Thevoma is recognized. These two
divisions of the Angamis may be spoken of as Pezoma and Pepfüma
respectively according to the terms they use for “mother.” The Pezoma
group appears to be also subdivided into Sachema and Thevoma, two
divisions of more or less equal status, though the former is actually
the senior. Nowadays, however, the Sachema group, which is very small