[The “Morung.”] Every village, except the very small ones, is divided
into two or more “khels” (yankho). Sometimes, but by no means always, a
little strip of open ground marks the division between “khel” and
“khel.” In some villages these “khels” mark the divisions of clans. For
instance, at Tsingaki there are two Kikung “khels” and one Nguli
“khel.” But this is not common. Usually a “khel” appears to be nothing
more than a convenient division of a village in which men of various
clans live. Sometimes some feature of the site gives the “khel” its
name, e.g. Hayili (“level”) khel in Akuk. Sometimes, as in the
Wokhayankho (“Wokha men’s khel”) in Pangti, the first inhabitants have
given a name to the “khel.” Usually a man lives and dies in the “khel”
in which his forefathers lived and died before him. But he is perfectly
free to go to another “khel” if he wants to. In every “khel” there is a
common bachelors’ house or “morung” (champo), [68] a building which
plays an important part in Lhota life. In it no woman must set her
foot. At the champo raids were planned and discussed, and to it all
heads taken were first brought. It is the sleeping-place of every Lhota
boy from the time he first puts on his dao-holder till he marries, this
rule being only relaxed in the case of boys who are allowed to remain
at home and nurse an ailing and widowed mother, or when the champo
falls into such a state of disrepair that it is no longer habitable. In
the latter case boys are allowed to sleep in a separate room in their
parents’ house. The champo usually stands at the end of, and facing
down, the village street. Though not to be compared with the huge
“morungs” of the Aos and Konyaks, it is the best architectural effort
of which the Lhota is capable. In length a typical champo extends to
forty feet, with a breadth of fifteen feet at the front and twelve feet
at the back. The roof-tree is low in the middle, and curves up to
gables at the front and back, that at the front being about sixteen
feet high and that at the back a foot or so lower. Two specially fine
bamboos are selected for the roof-tree. Part of the root is left on
them and forms a horn-like projection at each end of the roof-tree. To
each horn is fixed a little cross-piece, from which are hung
tassel-like ornaments of reed-stem. The house is thatched with either
thatching grass or the leaf of a small palm called oko (Levistonia
assamica). The eaves reach almost to the ground and are brought forward
in a half-circle in front to form a sort of verandah roof. In the
middle of the space covered by this verandah roof stands the front post
(humtse), which is elaborately carved with conventional representations
of mithan heads and hornbills, and is carried through the roof up to
the high gable. Behind it is another carved post (humtse tachungo). At
the base of this post are the oha stones on which the good fortune of
the champo depends, and to it used to be fastened a piece of skin from