Before the making of pitfalls (soku) was forbidden by Government large
numbers of elephants, deer and wild pig were killed by means of them.
Elephant-pits were huge affairs, but the ordinary pitfall was about ten
feet deep, with the bottom covered with big jagged rocks and “panjis,”
so that any animal which fell in was likely both to have its legs
broken and to be impaled. Many kinds of snares are used, mostly for
small animals and birds, though a running noose (putha or ozo) used to
be used by the Southern Lhotas for deer. The commonest trap is the
triangular trap (tsiri), which is also used by Aos, Changs, Semas and
Angamis. It is set in runs or at holes in fences and is most effective.
It consists of a triangle of bamboo, the base of which is extended to
form a bow. The side nearest the bow is double. Through this is passed
a noose which is set in such a way that any animal or bird trying to
get through the triangle releases the bow and is caught by the noose
against the double side. Birds and small animals are also caught by
running nooses (khükcha), platforms which release nooses when trodden
on (chambo), and fall-traps (otyo). Are Yanthamo appears to be the only
village which possesses a box-trap for leopards, though these
contrivances are common among the Aos, from whom Are Yanthamo probably
copied the one in question. It consists of a small low shed made of
stout saplings securely tied in place and is divided into two
compartments, in the hinder of which is put the bait, a live goat. The
leopard enters, and in making for the goat treads on a little platform
which releases a catch and drops a heavy wooden door behind it. Only
once did a leopard enter the Are Yanthamo trap, and then it raged and
roared in such an alarming way that the local Nimrods sat in the
village and quaked, till it eventually managed to break its way out. A
monkey is not an easy beast to snare, but a genius in Changbang
invented a booby trap for monkeys which is said to have been very
successful. He watched the line which monkeys took when chased off his
fields. In their path he dug a pitfall, and over it at some height
arranged a dry branch in such a way that monkeys would be sure to run
along it in their flight. He cut this branch nearly through, so that
the first monkey which used it snapped it off and came to an untimely
end in the pitfall. Kabuis use a similar trap for monkeys. [94]
Bird-lime (onyi) made of a mixture of the sap of the rubber tree
(nitsütung) and Ficus religiosa (nitsotung) is extensively used. The
two kinds of sap are boiled down in separate “chungas,” which are then
split and the resulting rubber-like cakes extracted and cut into small
pieces. The bits of thickened nitso sap are chewed to soften them and
put in a broken potsherd. Then the pieces of nitsü juice are toasted
over the fire on the end of an old umbrella stay and mixed with the
nitso sap in the potsherd while they are hot. The resulting bird-lime