Lhotas pressed on, one body through Phiro and Saki to the Lower Doyang, fighting the Angamis as they went, and another body to Wokha Hill, where a huge village called Lungcham is said to have been founded a little to the north of the present site of Niroyo. So vast was the crowd of warriors that at feasts and “gennas” there was never enough “madhu” to go round, though each man was only given one cock’s spurful as his share. It was clear that they must split up or starve, so they began to move off and found villages, sometimes ousting the Aos, who were once in possession of almost the whole of the present Lhota country, and sometimes occupying vacant sites to which they were led by various omens. A common story, told to account for the founding of Lungsachung, Lotsü and several villages, runs as follows: A man had a sow which wandered off one day and could not be found. He tracked it for miles, till he found it lying under a big tree, where it had littered. He at once decided to found a new village on the spot, and the tree where the sow had littered became the head-tree. [Ceremonies connected with the founding of a new village.] But the days of expansion are over now, and in many a village abandoned house sites and “genna” stones all overgrown with jungle show how the tribe is shrinking. Yet attempts are still made from time to time to reoccupy the sites of old villages wiped out by malaria, and the ceremonies connected with the founding of a new village deserve to be described. Having selected a site with a good water supply and a tree suitable for a head-tree (mingetung), the would-be founder [54] cuts a branch from a bush on the site. If the cut is a clean one and no leaves fall the omen is good. If the branch is not cut through with one blow or leaves fall the omen is bad. The omens being good he and his fellow-colonists select a man to be priest (Puthi) of the new village, and while still retaining the old village as their headquarters, set to work to clear the jungle on the new site. Before doing so, however, the Puthi throws a cornelian bead into the spring which is to supply the new village with water, and prays that the young men and maidens of the village may be strong. After the jungle has been cut the founder makes new fire with a fire-stick [55] (mi-hm). The Puthi then spears a small boar, which must not be singed in the fire, and cuts the throat of a cock, from the entrails of which he takes the omens. The pig is cut up, and the Puthi makes a little square of sticks on the ground. In the middle he puts an egg and on each side thirty tiny pieces of pork. All eat the rest of the pig, the pot in which the meat was boiled being turned upside down on the ground and left behind. The jungle having been burnt and a small “morung” constructed, houses are built. When the village is ready for occupation the colonists go to it from the old village in ceremonial dress and fully armed, taking with them a branch stolen from