[165] The Tangkhuls build a miniature house on a very high machan (for the size of the house) with a tiny notched bamboo for the spirit to use as a ladder.—J. H. H. [166] For a similar belief among the Garos, cf. Major A. Playfair, The Garos, p. 23. [167] According to Sir J. Frazer the reason is fear of the ghost, vide Psyche’s Task, pp. 134, 135 (2nd ed.), where the customs of the Shans and Kachins are mentioned and prove to be remarkably similar to those of the Lhotas.—J. H. H. These deaths are known in Naga-Assamese as “apotia.” [168] In a case that came to my notice at Lotsü, when the Puthi’s son got drowned when fishing, all the men with the lad threw away all their cloths, weapons, ornaments and everything they had taken with them on their outing. Even the dogs they had with them were killed and their bodies thrown into the jungle. The fact that it was the Puthi’s son that was drowned probably made the matter much more serious. The misfortune was put down to the anger of Tchhüpfu at the village having failed to “poison” the river with deo-bih, but it is possible that this was done in the hope that I would allow that forbidden practice to be renewed.—J. H. H. [169] Semas sometimes come and ask for them, also for the paddy left to rot in the grain-house. I have known both taken without objection, and I have known Lhotas also object to both on the grounds that in the act of taking them away it would be necessary to move them across the village lands, and that this alone might be enough to bring about some terrible calamity. I think, however, that jealousy had something to do with this attitude.—J. H. H. [170] Unless the disposal of enemy heads on the mingetung is so reckoned, or the disposal of the afterbirth in trees. Both are buried by the Angami and the latter by the Sema also.—J. H. H. [171] The Changs believe that “tiger-men” are confined to the Haki-Ung clan, where the peculiarity is hereditary. They say that at the time of the Universal Deluge, when only the highest peaks remained above the flood, the Haki-Ung clan was the only one from which tigers claimed no victims. They therefore became the adopted sons of tigers, and to this day have tiger “familiars.” No member of the clan may kill or touch the corpse of a tiger. When a tiger is killed it is believed a member of the Haki-Ung clan will die six days later in a distant village. [172] In this connection the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (“Leopard Men in the Naga Hills”) for Jan.–June 1920 may be referred to.—J. H. H. [173] Among other Naga tribes these stones must be black and heavy for their size, and show a wet smear when rubbed with the thumb. They are nodules of some stone which is not a normal geological feature of the country, and are regarded as distinct from the larger water-worn stones kept to bring fortune to the community, which are definitely of the locality. Cf. The Sema Nagas, Part IV. (Anagha).—J. H. H.