heaps the heads taken in a raid were placed for five days, during which the warriors were genna,—subjected to a process of tabu which had, I fancy, for its object the "desacralisation" of the warriors, since before they go on a raid they are similarly tabu. I may note that an oath taken on these stones is regarded as most binding.
I find other associations of head-hunting with stones in this area which may help us. In the Ning-thau-rōl, or Chronicles of the Royal House of Manipur, I find a passage declaring that at an early date a king of Manipur brought a holy stone from a Nāga village, placed it in the Palace, built a wall around it, and appointed that place for the burial of the heads of the victims killed in war. Without straying too far into an alluring digression on stone monuments in the area I deal with, I may point out that stone monuments are often erected inter vivos in order to secure stability and good fortune for the family, as is said to have been the intention of those who erected the remarkable group of stones at Willong, shown in Plate VII.[1] Stones are noticed in the Manipur Chronicles as exercising influence over the food supply of the people. In 1854 there was a scarcity of fish, which was attributed to the removal of a stone from its site in the Bazaar to the Temple of Nung sāba, literally "the stone-maker," one of the pre-Hindu deities who survived the reforms of King Pamheiba. The Chronicles of Manipur, I may observe, are of much interest because they tell against the extravagant pretensions of a section of the Meithei community, and because they frankly describe the various recensions to which they have been submitted. As historical documents their value has yet to be proved. As ethnological material, they are distinctly worthy of note for the glimpses of native life and thought which they offer to
- ↑ Plate VII. is from a photograph by Lieut.-Col. L. W. Shakespear, late Commandant of the Nāga Hills Military Police.
