Part 1: Language

Scholars who wrote about the Nagas used the name of Khezha in various ways. For instance, a century ago, Grierson (1904) called them Kezhama; Hutton (1921), Kezami, Kezama; while Marrison (1967) called them Khezha. Matisoff (1980) explains that the names “Kheja, Kheza and Khezha are co-allograms of a single name referring to a single group”. The names such as Kezhama, Kezami, Kezama, Kheja, Kheza and Khezha are all referred to the Khezhas.

The name Khezha, seems to be of Angami (language of neighboring tribe) origin. Because the word, khezha [kheža] does not indicate any meaning in Khezha; whereas in Angami, the word keza [keza] “bigness” in Kohima village dialect and kezha [kezá] “bigness” in Khonoma dialect are derived from adjective za/zha “big”. Hutton’s keza- is apparently recorded from the Kohima dialect, while Grierson’s from the Khonoma village dialect. Thus, the name Khezha appeared to be derived from the Angami proto-form kezha. The aspirated consonant of the initial syllable could be due to the influence of English sound pattern as the British in their official records had used this since colonial period.

Further, as per the historical tradition of the Khezhas, it is said that it was kehnü `taboo’ for a Khezha man unless replied with the expression, köza kadiemi `Khezha the great’ when a stranger asked his identity.

The native Khezhas called them as közhami, kuzami, kozami ‘Khezha people’ (strong-earn-people, with literal meaning as `people who earn the name by strength’) and közhale, kuzale, kozale ‘Khezha language’. The analysis may indicate that all the above names are the proto-form of the original name Köza `the name of Khezha ancestor’, Közami `the offspring of Köza’, Közale `language of Köza offspring’.

These differences are due to geographical structure of dialectal variation and the controversy emerged when literature in Khezha was introduced. This became inoperative for many years and became a stumbling block for the growth of Khezha literature. In spite of the several attempts of the Khezha Literature Committee by way of discussions and negotiations it still remained a vicious circle. Since this could not go on indefinitely, the Literature Committee called all the village representatives and educated Khezhas to a convention at Zapami village from February 2 to 4, 1979 and resolved to be used the names “Kuzhami” for English equivalent `people of Khezha’ and “Kuzhale” `language of Khezha’ for all the purposes. However, some of the villagers did not fully satisfy with the resolution and wanted a review.

Not only the growth of its literature, but this had also created serious problems in textbook preparation for school children. Realizing the emergence, the Literature Committee again convened the second convention at Pfütsero Town Committee Hall from 8^th-10^th November 2001, which reiterated the earlier resolution and unanimously approved by all the respective village representatives except one village. Subsequently, the Literature Committee also brought out a Quarterly Magazine known as “Kuzhami Sezhie Leshi” with its first issue, Zatho-2002 `January-2002’. Unexpectedly, the magazine received tremendous response and cash donations poured in continuously from different sources, though the publisher never asked for such donations.

Khezhas belong to Mongoloid race and share their physical features. Like others of Mongoloid group, they have a little flat nose and fold eyes, black hair with thin beard and moustache. Usually, their hair does not grow freely on the face. The hair which in childhood is often reddish in color, turns black later, its generally straight and very rarely curly. The color of their eyes is always brown; their complexion is yellowish. “The skins of both men and women are sometimes exceptionally fair, and ruddy, almost pink, tings may be noticed on their cheeks on which freckles, too, occasionally appear. As far as their persons go they are cleanly and wash frequently, even in cold weather – a quality only too rare amongst hill folk. Near the villages washing places are always to be found (Hutton, 1969:21)”. He further describes their physical features as “their stature, tall for hills men, is ordinarily about five feet nine and not infrequently goes up to six feet. Their bodies are usually lithe and frequently very fine developed, particularly as to the calf and chest and shoulders (ibid)”.

Khezhas live in Phek district in the southeast Nagaland and Ukhrul district in the North-East Manipur. There are only fourteen (14) Khezha villages, but all of them are thickly populated as compared to the villages in the area. In addition to the 14 villages, there were also two satellite or protectorate villages before India attained Independent namely, Theremi in the Western Zone and Metethrümi in the Eastern Zone. But during the Naga war of Independence, the situation became so severe that Theremi could not live in their village, hence abandoned the village and settled down with a bigger neighboring village Lasumi. As in the case of Metethrümi, according to the version of local people, in the early 1960s, the Naga soldiers shot down an airplane, which dropped rations for Indian soldiers in the vicinity of the village. This enraged the Indian soldiers and ultimately all the male population of the village were shot dead and thereafter the Indian soldiers burned down the village to ashes. Miraculously, a small boy escaped the bullet and ran into the jungle and was later found by some travelers of a neighbor village in the forest after a month. After this incident, the village remained jungle for several years. Very recently, the women of the village who married to other neighboring villages brought their families back to their ancestors’ village and resettled there.

Of the 14 villages, Zhesami in Manipur and Pfüitsero in Nagaland, respectively, are sub-divisional headquarters. The villages are settled om linear order and are stretched along the Manipur-Nagaland boundary line from Khezhakenoma in the west to Zhesami in the east. According to the Government of India census 1981, there are 23,167 Khezha speakers.

The neighboring tribes the forefathers of the Khezhas called them were, Engami (modern, Angami), Süqami (modern, Chokri), Tepfümi (modern, Pomai), Tshümezhomi (modern Sema and Rengma) and Melomi (modern, Phochuri).

According to the oral history of the Khezhas, once upon a time a severe etra `famine’ hit them, which was followed by erö `epidemic’. They were so severe that Khezha population was immensely reduced to less than a quarter of the earlier population. A prosperous Kami village, for instance, that was consisted of more than seven hundred (700) houses was reduced to less than a hundred houses. Thus, we may speculate that more than 75% of the population must had been hit by the tribulation. The affliction was so severe that a word traàrö `famine-epidemic’ was coined (the vowel prefix e- in èrö is assimilated to its adjacent vowel as ètra+èrö> traàrö). Even to these days, a disobedient child is called, traàrönö (famine-epidemic-child) `a child of destruction’ in outrage expression. The situation became so unbearable that a group of people abandoned their villages in search of a better place. Khezha forefathers called them Tenyimi or tenimi [tè+kèñi+mi (go-want-person) `people who preferred to escape’]. The identity of these people has not been traced till today. The general belief is that they were scattered around and gradually assimilated with different tribes.

In recent years, people of the Angamis claim that all these language communities such as Angami, Chokri, Khezha, Phochuri, Pomai, Rengma, Zeme, Liangmai, Rongmai, Mao, etc., belong to the group, called Tenyimia `people of Tenyi’. Accordingly, the original name of the language of Angami has also been renamed as Tenyidie (tenyi+language) `language of Tenyi’ with the claim that the Angami is the standard language of all the above language communities.

However, this has not been well taken by other tribes. According to the Khezhas, the people so called Tenyimia in Angami, are actually those people who had abandoned their villages during tribulation of traürö. A plausible evidence to support this version is that, all the names of neighboring communities of Khezha can be conjoined with the base of a word, èle `language, voice’ as in, Süqale `language of Süqami’; Engale or Engamile `language of Engami’; Tepfüle `language of Tepfümi’; Melomile `language of Melomi’; Tshümezhomile `language of Tshümezhomi’ and so on. But there never heard any of such language name called *Tenyile, in Khezha. Thus, it is explicit that, there never existed a language known as *Tenyile in the Khezha history.

The original homeland of the Khezhas is difficult to trace due to the lack of authentic sources of information. According to Khezha legend, there were two brothers living nearby a big lake. The elder brother put on his cowry kilt and moved upwards with his cattle. The younger brother then made a pig plate to cross the lake westwards. While crossing the lake, he moved upwards in search of his brother expecting that he might meet him at the end of the lake. But as he moved on, the lake became wider and wider and hence could not meet his brother when he reached the end of the lake. Even today, Khezhas believe that all the Nagas are the descendents of the younger brother, but till now they are not able to trace the descendents of the elder brother.

There is also another version, which says that their ancestors were emerged out of a cave and then set up a new village called Methrore (Hutton’s Mekhroma). As per their oral literature, there are two specimens available with us. These antics, as claimed by the native Khezhas, were carried with them by the migrants and hence are still carefully preserved: one is a metal plate and the other is a paleolithic stone seat. They may be described briefly as per the observation made by the author.

This specimen is preserved in Letromi village. The plate is round in shape; the bottom of it is smaller than its mouth, smoother at its bottom and about two and half inches in height. According to them, originally it was greenish in color, but since it is already old and rusted by now the original color is no more visible. The plate is worn out almost half of its portion.

Picture-2: A broken metal plate partly broken and rusted, which is found in Letromi village. It is said that their forefathers carried with them at the time of migration.

This specimen is preserved in Leshemí village. The seat is necked designed and is ruddy in color. According to them, it was originally greenish in color, but it became ruddy after it was once burnt by the fire about thirty years ago. It is about 10” in height and 6” in diameter, vertically necked and horizontally round in shape.

We may also consider the report made by Hutton (1967 .p8). Hutton, in his footnote reports as “It is undeniable that for some time migration in this part of the world has been from south to north, but it cannot be said how long this has been going on. Colonel L.W. Shakespear suggests that the Naga fancy for marine shells may point to a bygone home on the sea (History of Upper Assam, p.197). In any case, the Nagas have very strong cultural affinities with the natives of the Asiatic Islands, notably Borneo, and the Philippine Islands, and perhaps physical affinities with some of them (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. xliv, p.57)”.

In recent years some scholars like Chib (1984), Ganguli (1984) and Marrison (1967) tried to trace the original homeland of the Nagas by studying through different sources. However, they express different views. Chib and Gunguli, while collecting information from the Vedic literature, hold that, the Mongoloid groups entered into India about 2000 B.C. However, their opinions varied regarding the route of their migration. According to Ganguli, the presence of the Mongoloid groups in the sub-Himalayan region and northeastern India was noted by the 10^th century B.C when the books on the Vedas were compiled. The only routes permitting large-scale movements of immigrants who have penetrated into India from time immemorial, led through the mountain passes in northwest and in the northeast. It was not known for the people who penetrated from the East (Ganguli, 1984, p.2). The origin of the Naga race, according to her, is veiled in obscurity. Most probably they migrated towards their present homes from different directions across the mountains, possibly following the overland route or tracks extensively used by the Chinese-traders and embassies between China and India from China to Upper Burma and Assam (ibid, p.6).

The difficulty in establishing accurate information is that, although mentions were made about the presence of the Mongoloid race in various chronicles, no specification of the groups was made in any record. One obvious reason was their geographical and political isolations. In the opinion of Chib, the Nagas entered into India through Burma. Contrary to this version, Marrisson, who, basing on his classification of Naga languages, claims that, the Nagas originated their movements from Eastern Tibet and Western China. In the course of their movements they split and entered the Naga Hills at different points. The following are the directions accounted by him:

i) from Tibet, through the Dihang (Brahmaputra) valley, across the Upper Assam Valley, and thence into the northern Naga Hills,

iii) from North-East Burma, across the river Chindwin, up the Nantaleik (Tizu) valley, into the central Naga Hills,

iv) from the Manipur valley northwards, to the southern Naga Hills, and onwards by the Doyang valley,

v) from the Manipur valley and thence by the Upper Barak valley into the Barail range.

1.5. WEAPONS:

Khezhas had different types of weapons used for hunting animals, birds and warfare[2]. They are discussed under different heads:

emhi `spear’ : There are three different types of spear. Each spear has its own name such as mhidzü, mhire, and mhiramhì. The length of the shaft of spears is almost equal in all the cases, about six feet.

mhidzü: It is the most ordinary one that has no metal shank and is used for hunting animals only.

mhire: It is the most common spear, used for both hunting animals as well as in the warfare. It has plain metal shank on the head, sharp and pointed end and ear-like design at the neck. The spear is usually swathed with some red clothes below the shank, but removed when used for hunting animals.

mhiramhì: It has a huge shank adorned by a series of purely ornamental barbs out from the solid metal. The barbs that are regular and bilateral; vary according to the martial achievements of the owner, but usually not more than five barbs on each side. It is swathed with long hair dyed red and black mix.

tsübuh (helmet) and mezhí (shield): Khezha warriors wore helmets and shields of wicked work mainly to cover the more vulnerable parts of the body at the time of fighting enemies. The shield is large enough to ward off the entire body, but very light and easily maneuverable. It is made of a long strip of buffalo or mithun hide about five feet length, two and half foot breadth and narrow down to one and half feet at the bottom. It is suspended by a rope going over the right shoulder to be manipulated by the left hand with the aid of a small horizontal cane handle set low inside of the shield. The helmets are made of animal skins like tiger or bear, which covers the head.

elü’: It is a kind of bow made of bamboo slat with a string made of cane stretched between the ends of the slat, used for shooting birds or small animals. The ends of the string is rolled with strong cotton thread and looped. Its bullet is a small ball projectile made of a special variety of clay. [For the bed of the bullet, the string is separated into two equal parts at the middle and put two spikes about half an inch in length in between leaving about half and inch apart and enwrapped them with a thin cane, and rolled over them with a strong cotton thread so that its shape becomes square, netted them tightly so that the bullet can stay on it firmly while pulling the string for shooting.] At the middle of the slat a wooden handle is affixed so that it is convenient to shoot so also increasing the force of the flying bullet.

tsütholü: It is a kind of cross bow consisting of a bow fixed cross-wise on a wooden stock, with groove on the stock to direct the arrow, which is used for hunting bigger animals. Near the butt of the stock is a trigger to take the pulled string enabling the shooter aim at the target and shoot by pulling the trigger. The shaft of the arrow is made of a variety of small bamboo stem about one feet long with thin and pointed head made of metal at one end and flight-stabilizing feathers or a variety of dry leaf cut into triangular shape at the other.

traps and snares: Traps and snares are largely used by the Khezhas. There are several types of traps and snares for different size of animals and birds. For big animals like, bear, deer, etc., they employ trobuh ‘pitfall or ditch’; while for the smaller animals and birds they employ kösa, tsheke, etshe, kebuh and ehtse.

kösa: It is made of bamboo slat of a triangular shape at one end. The slat is split into two at the side of the triangle, which has for its base a strip of bamboo extending about four feet beyond the double side of the triangle. From the end of this bamboo slat to the foot of the double side is a fiber thong containing a bamboo spike. To set the trigger, the bamboo slat is falcated like a sickle and the near end of the thong is gathered in a loop inside the triangle through the double side. The point of the spike is set on the apex, and a string with a small peg (which acts as trigger) is attached that runs from the thick end of the spike to the double side against which the peg is held in place by a thin twig of any stem of grass running across the loop of twig inside the triangle. When the victim touches the twig, its neck is held between the thong and the double side of the triangle. This is employed to catch any type of wading birds or animals as big as jungle cats.

tsheke: This is employed mostly to catch bigger animals or birds. It consists of a bough or stout bamboo slat that is bent down as a spring. The spring contains two strings. The first one is shorter, which holds a notched wooden peg (which acts as trigger)) at one end and the other end is fastened on to the butt of the spring. The second one is longer, which is also tied on to the butt and at the other end of it is a slipknot, which is driven into the ground as the spring is bent down so that the loop of it is securely fixed at the lair to enable animal insert its head into it as it passes through. The path of the animal is made narrowed down to the required level by walling the surroundings of the lair so as to induce animal take that path ensuring that it does not sneak off from the other side of the path. Each side of the path is a sturdy stick that is pinned down deep into the ground; another stick is again securely tied in horizontal position joining the two vertical sticks on top of the path. This stick in the horizontal position is then caught back in the notched wooden peg as the shorter string that holds the trigger pulls down the slat, from which it is freed at once when the victim touches it. The victim is then whipped up off the ground by the slipknot beyond possibility of escape.

etshe: It is made of strong fiber or the hair of horsetail. The hair of horsetail, for instance, about ten pieces of it are spun together and looped. The knot of the loop is made pliant enough by projecting a small loop at the end allowing the fiber pass through it. The jungle of each side of the lair is fenced so as to induce the victim to take the required path (similar with procedure for tsheke) A stick is placed above the lair and tied on it with the loop. The loop is then hanged down to block the lair. To make the loop from being displaced, a small peg is split into two at one end and the loop is gripped between it, then nailed down the other end into the ground. When the head of the victim is inserted into the loop, the neck is caught when it moves forward. The more the victim struggles the fiercer the fiber becomes. This is employed mostly to catch jungle fowls.

kebuh: The projection of kebuh is simple as compared to other types of traps. A log is weighed with heavy stone and placed over a run in such a way that the animal when passing underneath displaces a stick, which releases the string by which the log is suspended. This sort of trap is usually employed for the smaller animals, while jungle cats or other bigger animals, such a trap is baited by a live mouse tied by a string to a peg in a hole in the side of a hillock, at the edges of paddy-field, etc.

ehtse : A kind of bird-lime for catching birds is made from the gum of trees or a kind of seed. It is employed for two purposes such as fruit feeding and drinking. For fruit feeding, the gum is spread along the sticks about one foot long and nailed on the boughs of the tree. The wings of the victim are caught when it touches the stick and thus it will simply fall down on the ground when its wings are caught. As for drinking, the gum is spread along the stem of the grass, about two feet long and nailed near the water where the birds are expected to wade. The victim’s leg, feather, wings and so on would be caught instantaneously when it touches the stick.

trobuh: Deep pitfall covered over which is a light layer of earth and leaves concealing the ditch are usually employed for catching big animals, especially deer and bear. Within the ditch, the stakes, which are sharp-pointed bamboo skewers, are also skillfully placed.

1.6. WARFARE AND HEAD HUNTING:

Khezhas abandoned the practice of headhunting after they became the subjects of the British about a century ago. It was never known in Khezha history that a Khezha village waged war against another Khezha village, but confrontation between a Khezha village against a non-Khezha village usually occurred because of boundary disputes or that some men of either village took away the head of somebody or cold-bloodedly murdered, or mere lust of human head. In such cases, the war was usually declared by sending a messenger or diplomat known as demi to the village with which there was dispute. Of course, it was not necessary to be prefaced by a formal declaration. In the first instance, the village might be ambushed or raided by a well-organized force. After that, the war would simply continue as a mere series of head-taking raids by one or more warriors. Cases of conquest were never heard in Khezha history.

Before setting out on a war expedition, the leader of the party must, first of all, consult thozo `omen, examination of fortune’ by strangling a fowl. The thozo was considered good if the right leg of the fowl crossed over the left when it dies. This fowl would then be cooked and partaken by all the warriors of the party. They should not touch any women that night, for they believed that their spirit (rokwe) might become weak. They should not carry their spears pointing back over their shoulders, but must carry them pointing forwards or straight upright, nor should they wear the seams of the clothes inwards when going for war expedition.

The taking of enemy head was practiced simply to show the evidence for truth that a warrior had killed enemy. Therefore when a warrior killed more number of enemies and could not carry their heads, he might simply take the ears of the victims. Because the killer of enemy was entitled to certain distinctive articles of dress, and without producing proof of it, he would not get such entitlement.

When two villages are engaged in war, they would appoint a diplomat, demi, from both sides. The demi’s duty was to return the heads taken by the other village. Thus, one significant difference between some other tribes of Nagas, Konyak for example, and the Khezhas is that, the Khezhas never took enemy head as a trophy. The head would be returned to the family of the victim after all the required rituals were accomplished. Sometimes, they would mediate for peace treaty. If the peace treaty were agreed upon by both sides to end hostilities, they would do so by taking oath. The demi or a neutral village would administer the oath of the treaty. The sentences of the oath were usually uttered as, “If any man of my village break this peace treaty first, so long as water flows in my springs and so long as the sun and the moon remain in the heaven, shall my men be defeated, and much blood shall flow on my side”.

They then would organize feasts together. To begin with, one village would go to the other village and the host village would incur for the feast and vice versa the following year. All the men-folk of the guest village would go decorating themselves with traditional dresses and singing. On their arrival, the men-folk of the host village would pick them up one by one and take them as friend. From that day onwards they would become friends. If the population of the guest village was more than the host village, then each man could receive more than one friend. Both the village boys would play different kind of games and sports, eat, drink and sing together on the following day. The guest would then go back to their village on the third day.

If a Khezha village waged war against a non-Khezha village and was in a disadvantageous position, they might request any other Khezha village for assistance. If not, they would not be interfered by any other village. However, in the case of destroying the village by burning or any other means such that a Khezha village was in distress, it was bound for other Khezha villages to come for their rescue. In the case of attack from by foreigners, whose intention was to conquer them, then in such occasions all the Khezha villages would organize their warriors and form a kind of unit to defend themselves.

According to the oral history of the Khezhas, there were two of such instances. They called these enemies as Rigacü ‘people of up-wards’ (presumably the Meites) and Throqacü ‘people of down-wards’ (presumably the Ahoms).

The first story goes as, once some villagers of Khezhas murdered the son of Riqacü king when he went out hunting animals and trespassed the forest of Khezha territory. As he did not return home, the king went out in search of his son for many days and at last found him murdered in the forest. The king then took a vow to avenge the murderer. Knowing fully well that the king of Rigacü would attack them some day, Khezhas also organized their warriors and prepared for battle. One day the king came with a large force. Khezha warriors then ambushed the invader at a deep stream and inflicted some casualties upon them. As the king was taken unaware he retreated for a moment. At that time there occurred heavy storm, which prevented him to proceed further. After that, the king withdrew his force.

Another story goes as; the king of throgacü invaded western part of Naga inhabitant area. Thus, the war went on for several days. The Nagas suffered heavy casualties and were at the verge of surrendering their territory to the invaders. Therefore, they requested reinforcement from the Khezha warriors. The Khezhas then organized some of their good fighting warriors and sent them to defend the country. As the reinforcement came, the forces of the Nagas were strengthened and inflicted heavy casualties upon the invaders, thus compelling them to withdraw.

Metshü Rokwe:

Khezhas were great believers of odd number; especially number “seven”. It was never known that the Khezhas sent six or eight number of warriors in any war expedition. The number of warriors must be either seven or fourteen, or additional seven and so on. Similarly, even in the setting up of new Khezha villages, it was believed that the metshü rokwe “spirit of public” would never establish its full strength till it is consisted of seven villages. It was believed that every village had its own metshü rokwe and was considered paramount importance. In some occasion it remained strong, but could be vice versa in some other occasion. The village would not be able to kill wild animal nor could they defeat enemy when it remained weak. Thus, the metshü rokwe was believed to play very important role in time of danger. When the seven spirits joined hands, that is, the spirits of seven villages, even their warriors would fare well in time of fighting the enemy in the battlefield. This may be the reason that Khezha villages were consisted of only fourteen: seven in the eastern range and another seven in the western range.

Közanöthrö:

There were instances that the Throqacü (Ahoms) from the north and Riqacü (Meiteis) from the north often invaded Naga villages with large armies and sometimes conquered them and demanded tribute from them. In such instance, Khezha villages would organized their warriors and repel the invaders. “…at times the Ahoms from the north and the Meitheis from the south invaded the Naga village-states with their armies, conquered them and demanded tribute from them. Sometimes they took Naga women away for marriage also. The invasions, however, were short-lived, resulting in neither permanent occupation, nor effective establishment of any authority of the invaders or subjugation of the hill men. Thus the country inhabited by the Naga tribes retained its independence for many centuries (Ganguli, 1984, p.7).”

Besides repelling the invasion, there were also instances that when a village of a neighboring tribe was in distress position in their conflict with another neighboring village, they would request Khezha warriors for their rescue or in some instance simply take revenge on the enemy village. Therefore, out of their gratitude and recognition of the authority, the villages of many neighboring tribes used to offer kinds as a tribute known as Közanöthrö “contribution of the Khezha children” to the Khezhas once in every year.

This tribute was never colleted by force, by a free will and it was kehncü to reject or complain even if a house contributed just a handful of beans, a small lump of salt (local salt manufactured out of brine), or a single piece of bead. According to their history, the prominent items they collected as tributes were meci `salt’, wici `mithun horn’ (with which they made cup for drinking hazhu `rice-beer’), thöprufü `tusk’ (with which they made bracelet for wearing on the upper arm by men), cowries and different sizes of beads. Since it was difficult to carry, grains and other minor items were left to the respective villages to be distributed to poor people. The tribute continued till British conquered the Nagas. Even today, the house tax that is collected every year is still called Közanöthrö by the Khezha.

Submission to the British:

Neither any historians nor British officers who wrote their experiences in war expedition in Naga country mentioned anything about unfriendly act of the Khezhas against British invasion. This poses several questions why the Khezhas being addressed to as Köza Kadiemi `Köza the Great’ did not show their might when many other Naga villages heroically fought against the British invasion, in spite of the several odds.

According to Khezha history, long time ago, apparently several centuries ago, one metymi (a prophet) had foretold as, “In future, there would arise a mighty king called Höva. He would be mighty, yet very kind in heart. No one would defeat him and all the people of the world will become Hövami `people of Höva. His wealth would be beyond measure and he would finally distribute his properties to all his people.” Coming to know about the might of the British and the uniform of their soldiers, they mistook them to be the soldiers of that mighty king, Höva. They thought it would be futile to fight against them, so they decided to dispatch their friendly mission to the British and offer themselves to be part of the invaders.

On one fateful day, all the 14 Khezha villages, including two satellite villages (7+1) in the Eastern Zone and (7+1) in the Western Zone, decided voluntarily to submit to the British and invited the latter to visit their country as a friendly guest. This possibly be sometime in 1878-80 (c.f. Ganguli, 1984, p.11). The villages are,

Western Zone: Tsemi, Leshemi, Lasumi, Zapami, Kami, Letromi, Pfütseromi, and Theremi (satellite or protectorate village of Lasumi, Leshemi and Zapami.

Eastern Zone: Mesulumi, Nhulumi, Tshüzami, Thechümi, Losami, Zhesami, Trowemi, and Metethrümi (satellite or protectorate village of Zhesami and Trowemi.

On receiving the invitation, the British sent a mission under the command of an officer. The representative of the Khezhas then met him on the way with two sackful of articles that contained a mixture of items they collected as Közanöthrö. The officer picked up a piece of bead as token of acceptance. Thereafter, agreement was made to transfer the annual tribute collected by the Khezhas to the British. The later, however, preferred to collect the tribute in cash at fix rate rather than in kind by free will as. So accordingly, the British officer fixed Rs.2/- to be collected from each house per annual instead of in kind as was practiced by the Khezhas. The officer also agreed to retain the name of the tribute, Közanöthrö (the equivalent terms: Khezhanuothro in Angami and Khazana in Assamese). Thereafter, he appointed a representative from each clan of the respective villages and then distributed a piece of cloth to each of them to be worn on the shoulder, which the Khezhas named them Kabura `shoulder cloth’. Subsequently, these clan representatives had been called after this cloth’s name. After several years, the original cloth had been replaced with a red wool cloth, called Kehara. However, the name of the representative Kabura (“Gaonbura” in Assamese) had been retained.

1.10. DOMESTIC LIFE

1.10.1. DRESSES AND ORNAMENTS:

With the advent of modern civilization most of the ornaments worn by their ancestors are no more seen today. However, as far as their cloths are concerned, most of them are still popular even in this present generation. They are discussed below:

(i) DRESSES:

Shawls were the most popular among all the dresses of the Khezhas and many of them are still existed even today, except the cloths, which were woven with indigenously manufactured threads. Since sophisticated threads manufactured by modern industries are readily available today, people prefer to go for them. Khezha ancestors wove different types of cloths with different designs, and each having its own name, suffixed by –ra according to their design. There was no social restriction between men and women for wearing the shawls except the distinction between married or elderly persons and young or unmarried persons. They may be briefly described below:

Shawls for Elderly Person:

töphara : It was pure white cotton shawl with indigenously manufactured thread, worn by elderly men and women, but this too.

kothróra : It was gray in color made out of refined jute and mostly worn by elderly men and women, and also used as quilt.

thevora: It was brownish nettle-cloth woven with thread made out of a variety of stinging nettle, a genus of urtica family, found in the deep forest known as thevo, which was mainly used as quilt.

therüdíera : It is a pure white cotton cloth with big stitches about half an inch of its size . In the past, rich parents who had offered a kind of feast, called sese, to the village wore this, but this restriction is no more existing today. Since the design of the stitching is very sophisticated, people are fascinated wearing it even today.

líketsüra: It has black back-ground with different picture such as heads of buffalo, tiger, mithun and bull. In the past, those people, who had offered all the designated feasts such as sese, trilo, jüze and zatshü and also erected memorial stone, wore this. But such restriction is no more existing today. Although the cloth is still seen worn by some people even today, it is no more as popular as it was in the past.

Shawls for Boys and Girls:

lohera: It had black back-ground with red and green stripes at the edges.

tshüra: It had white back-ground with two black lines at the border of both sides and small red stripe at the last end of both sides. There were several embroidered designs in the main body.

köprira: This had white back-ground with black stripes without any other designs.

tshüsora: This had black back-ground with one big red stripe at both ends of the cloth.

chinora: It had white back-ground with one black stripe at each end and two scarlet lines at both ends of the black stripe.

chukètsüra: . It had black background with yellow, red and blue stitches. The thread of stitching was as big as that of therüdiera.

This shawl was meant for girls only in the past, but this restriction has been relaxed today. The shawl is very sophisticated, hence not only the native Khezhas, but also outsiders (non-Nagas) too, both men and women, are fascinated to wear the shawl and is widely sold in the market.

rira : It had black back-ground with red and white stripes, and was embroidered on the white stripe. This shawl was specifically meant for the warriors only. However, the restriction for this shawl too, has been abolished since the past many years and are widely sold in the market. Although, the restriction has been relaxed, it is still unusual for women to wear it.

Other Clothes:

ranhie : This cloth was woven mainly for carrying the babies on the back, hence there is no restriction of its color.

thorhe : It was a white cotton cloth worn by young boys as petticoat before reaching the stage of puberty period. All those boys who wore this kilt were allowed to contest in the competition for pulling the pennies of ox when some rich people offered feast to the village. This was ;ole a sport for them and young boys usually like to wear this kilt just simply to qualify themselves if the contest. The one who could run away with it became the winner and owned the pennies. But this too, is no more existed today.

menie : There are two types of menie ; one is known as pfücü menie ‘kilt’ for men and other one is menie nönha ‘petticoat’ for women.

kilt : Before modern dresses were available to them, the permanent dress that every man put on was a black kilt. The kilt was generally embroidered with cowries (chüna) in three or four lines. Common men wore kilt that had three lines of cowries, while those who had illicit relation with both the mother and the daughter of another house wore the kilt having four lines of cowries.

petticoat : It has black back-ground with red stripes on both the edges and different embroidered designs on the body of the cloth. Under this, they also wore a thin white cloth, which they simply called it throe-menie or meniethro ‘under-wear’.

rashe : There are two types of rashe. The first is for casual wear. It is a plain blue cloth and sometimes white with black marginal stripes of varying width. The second one has a dark blue back-ground with red at the edge, worn during special occasions like festival, religious ceremonial, wedding, etc. While wearing rashe, they wear it cross-wise under one arm and fasten it on the opposite shoulder fully covering the chest.

(i) ORNAMENTS:

Khezhas had a vague concept about some precious stones such as suna `gold’ and hira `a luminary object believed to be carried by giant snakes’. However, there is no any legendary clue at any point of generation that a Khezha had made use of them in the form of ornament or in any other form. Unlike the cloths, Khezhas mostly depended on the ornaments collected as tribute from other tribes. After the tribute discontinued, the ornaments gradually became scanty years after year. As a result the ornaments worn by their ancestors are rarely seen today. In the past, they wore different varieties of ornaments, and in many instances, the ornaments differed for men and women. As compared to ornaments for men, Khezha women had very few ornaments. The most common ornament worn by both men and women in the ears was a plug of red, blue or black cloth called töphamena. Women wore the same necklaces (ehtsü) as their men-folk, but they neither wore any hair, leg or ear ornaments, nor any sort of cowries or flowers. The hair of a virgin girl[3] was shaved (of course this is no more in practice today), but a non-virgin girl kept long hair like any other married women down her back. Wives of men usually carried an iron staff with an ornamental wooden top. Neither finger rings nor any sort of gold or other precious stones were worn by either sex. Young boys wore brass rings in their ears and in addition, they often stuck bright flowers or sleek feathers in their ears. Men never wore bangles, except that they sometimes wore red, yellow and green strips of cotton and thoprufü on the upper arm. On the legs, men also wore tsütho and phekherü. Women wore a brass ring called baliethö on the upper arm and bacothö on the wrist. On the head, every man, young or old, kept a bunch of hair uncut known as thazö. During festivals, they would tie it into a knot, a cotton rope-like structure, about one and half inch in diameter and three feet in length would be rolled and encircled round the knot of the hair and stuck into it was a long curved feather of cock tail.

Most of the ornaments worn by the Khezha ancestor differ for men and women except necklaces. For convenience, the prominent ornaments worn by Khezha ancestors may described separately:

Ornaments for Women:

laprì : It is a long brass ring about six inches, which is semi-circle, worn through the top of each ear by women who were no more virgin. The pair is firstly being joined by a string across the top of the head, and secondly round the back of the head, thus keeping the hair on the top of the head smooth and tidy.

menaakhödìe: It is a white round and flat ear ornament, about half an inch in diameter, worn by unmarried women. The ornament is hanged on both sides of the earlobe by a small cotton string.

nönamena: It is a large cotton thread dyed blue and wore above the earlobe.

töphamena: It is a big white cotton thread usually wore after the removal of menaakhödie.

baliethö: It is a large artifice bracelet of bugle shaped, made of brass and wore on the upper arm. The bigger end of the bracelet is lumped, about half and inch in diameter, which is evenly narrowed down to less than a quarter inch that formed palmated shaped. The bracelet is then evenly curved down so as to hold firmly round the upper arm of the wearer. The ends of it are again turned outwards away from one another

bacothö: It is another artifice brass wristlet wore as wrist-bands. The shape of it is flat which is skillfully evenly curved down enabling the wrist to enter directly through it without through the hands.

Ornaments for Men:

thöprufü: On the arms, the principal ornament worn by men was the ivory armlet, which was skillfully made with a complete section of elephant tusk.

thazö: Every man, young and old, would keep a bunch of hair uncut at the back of head that was considered as part of ornament for them. During festivals, they would tie it into a knot. Cotton rope-like (about half an inch in diameter) was rolled and encircled over the knot of the hair, then put long sleek curved tail of cock or any other colorful feather between the hair and the cotton.

pila: It is made out of bamboo craft consisting of 20-30 pieces of stick threaded on the same pattern of line with two or three strings passing through transverse pieces of bamboo thread, which looks like fully spread peacock tail is also worn by them. The length of each piece varies from one and half feet to two feet with a quarter inch breadth. The bamboo thread serves to keep the sticks a part, and is decorated with white and hairy feathers that grow on the chest of cock or hen, some in some other cases, white cotton strip on top of each stick.

Since this ornament is very heavy and inconvenient, they wore only during special occasions such as when they festive in other friendly villages or in a very important festival. This is how even the number of sticks and their sizes also vary depending on the strength of the wearer.

lodö: A kind of waist-band made of white cotton thread. A large cotton thread about half and inch in diameter in breadth and one and half feet in length are rolled and about 15 to 20 pieces are tied on the string allowing the rolled cotton thread hang down as string is tied round the waist.

erhe: Two pieces of cloth of white background with about three inches length of flounce, erhe, are worn cross-wise from the shoulder to the opposite waist allowing the cloth reaching upper thighs of both the opposite sides. The length of the cloth is about six feet and about four inches wide, which are embroidered in alternate pattern with yellow and green color. About an inch in length of the embroider clothes are left uncut at both sides that form flounce.

chüzümenapa: It is made out of the wing of a bird and the ornament is called after the name of the bird chüzü. The color of its wing and tail is blue, while it is yellow and green stripes in other parts of the body.

töphamenapa: They dyed a cotton into either blue or red, rolled about a quarter inch in breadth and one inch in length and wore it on the ear above the ear-lobe.

zhimenapa: There are two types of zhimenapa. One is simple brass ring and the other is thin brass of four or five pieces, worn on the earlobe.

pfücümenapa: This is geranium. Young boys usually insert geranium flower into their ear-hole, hence the flower also called pfücümenapa (man-flower).

fümhi: A small sleep curved feather of cock are also usually inserted through the hole of earlobe with or without any other ornament on the ears.

tsütho: On the legs, between calf and knee, rings of cane thread dyed black were worn. In most of the cases, the number of ring goes up to more ten pieces depending on the choice of the individual.

phekherü: On the calf, they wore white, yellow and red stripes plaited cane fully covering the calf of both the legs.

chüna: A permanent dress that every man put on was a black kilt. The kilt was generally embroidered with cowries in three or four lines (see dress).

Necklace:

Both men and women wore the same type of necklace, etsü, without gender distinction. There are two types of necklace, namely, tsülocü and tsüphra.

tsülocü: It is a tiny white beads made from the insides of the conch shells. The size of its string is just the size of the wearer’s neck so that the string may not band.. It may consist of single string or in other cases it may be more depending on one’s choice.

tsüphra: It is a huge necklace forming six or more strings of conch shell beads. The cornelian is threaded on the same pattern with translucent chalcedony in front that are banded down till to the chest in rows. The string passes through transverse pieces of bone at intervals. These pieces of bone serve to keep the lines of beads a part.

1.10.2. HAIR CUTTING:

Before the blade and scissors were available to the Khezhas, they would cut their hair with dagger. The operation was however, performed neatly by holding the dagger under the hair, and then slightly tapping the latter with a piece of wood. Sir James Johnstone observed the hair cutting performed by a Khezha with the comment as “The result was that the hair-cutting was, as neatly accomplished as it could have been by the best London hair-dresser (Johnstone, 1971:1979). After this was performed, the lower portion of the head was shaved with a sharp knife curved into bow-shape. With the same knife they also shaved their beards, moustaches and heads of the children and unmarried girls.

1.10.3. DOMESTIC ANIMALS:

The domestic animals of Khezhas ewi ‘mithun’, etseh ‘cattle’, evo ‘pig’, etshü ‘dog’, köthö ‘cat’, ezho ‘bee’ and efü ‘fowl’.

ewi: This is a magnificent beautiful and extremely smart animal having two beautiful horns. It is reared as a form of wealth for them, in which, they invest large sums of money even today. But except for trading purposes and the consumption at the time of feasts, it has no particular value. Although, the meat is not so delicious, it is prestigious to eat it in the feasts. The value of the animal varies depending on its color and horns. The pointed part of the horn is sleek black and broad part yellowish. The horn is used as cup for drinking wine and those who do not drink wine simply keep it at home for decoration purpose. The color preferred is being black with four white stockings and also a blaze. This choice is not because of religion, but simply for lust of its beauty. Their color tends to vary depending on the method of keeping them. For when they are loose freely in the jungle they tend to become predominantly black, but when they are tied up in the house, the color tends to become reddish. Thus, they are usually allowed to roam freely in the forest, almost in a wild state and are merely visited by the owner from time to time. They easily recognize the call of the owner for meci `salt’, which is their favorite. And once accustomed to salt in a certain place, they rarely stray very far. This animal is found only in Khezha and some parts of Chokri area in India. The government of India set up a mithun research center a few years ago in this area. A smaller variety of mithun is also found in Arunachal Pradesh of Northeast India; but they are not as magnificent as the one found in Khezha and Chokri area.

etseh: Cattle are kept in large numbers for their meat and for sale by the Khezhas. Like other Nagas, milking system was unknown to them in the past, but now people slowly learnt to use milk for different purposes. Hence, they are inclined to rearing milch-cows more and more today. Before the advent of modern civilization, cattle were often allowed to live in the porch of the houses, but as people have become more sophisticated and hygienic, separate sheds are often built a little away from the house or in the gardens for the cattle.

Bulls are greatly valued and paid special care, especially for those that are having short and sturdy horns (eci) with well-built hump (nyopfo) and short neck (kewö’). Because they are usually stronger and smarter in fighting than others having long horns.. The reason is that bull-fighting is one of the favorite entertainments of the Khezha men (This is different from the Spanish bull-fighting. In Khezha bull fighting (kepfo) man is never involved, but one bull fights against another). The bull is more ferocious and fights better in the presence of its owner. When fighting, the owner will call out by its name to remind and advise its position of neck, horns, legs, etc., also to encourage and promise special food if it wins in the fight.

èvo: Pigs are kept by every family in the village for their domestic consumptions. Pigs are regularly fed with paddy husks, rice, corns, pumpkins, vegetables, etc. They are always fed with cooked food. All the male piglets are castrated, ears are slit and the tails are docked at the same time before they are three months old. They are usually allowed to stray freely.

etshü: Dogs are kept under the same circumstances as pigs except that they are better fed. There are two types of dogs such as tshüfü ‘hunting dog’ and tshüpo ‘non-hunting dog’. The latter variety is reared only for use as meat, while the former is kept mainly for hunting animals. All the male dogs have their tails docked and their ears slit close to the head. They are never employed for hunting animals for it is said that they cannot run fast due to their heavy testicles and lack of endurance. Bitches never have their ears cropped, but their tails are usually docked. Docking their tails and cropping their ears have no connection with religion, but it is simply a custom.

Dogs used for hunting are treated much better than the ordinary cur. In the past, hunting dogs were usually never be killed by the man who trained or kept them for hunting purposes, but were buried with cloths in recognition of the service rendered to their owners when they die. If a man killed a hunting dog he had to leave the village for seven days, and on the day of his departure and again on the day of his return the whole village observed a non-working day called menyi `holiday’ to condole the death of the dog with its owner.

köthö: Cat is considered to be different from other animals. They are subjected to certain superstitions. Thus, it is not so favorable to keep cat at home. The advantage of keeping a cat is that it eats up the rats. Rats are filthy animals. Khezhas believe that they not only destroy the crops, but also bring diseases. They usually predict epidemic to occur in the village if the population of the rats in the village is increased. Therefore, keeping cats at home is regarded as important for the purpose of minimizing the population of rats. Killing of a cat is not a taboo, but they usually do not like to kill it, for they believe that cat is the eldest among all the animals. Therefore, killing a cat may bring bad omen, particularly the black cats.

efü: Fowls kept in the house are usually of small varieties, which are commonly called country chicken. In the past, jungle fowls were plenty in the jungles surrounding the villages and it is said that the domestic fowls were often inter-bred with those of the wild ones. The owners feed their fowls not as liberally as the other animals, but enough to keep them from straying to the jungle or to other’s house.

ezho: There are two types of ezho: the one that gives honey and the other that gives only larvae. There is only one variety called kewuzho that they usually rear in a single piece of hollow wood called kewuzhobu, and use mostly for domestic purposes. Rearing honeybee is not as popular as keeping the other variety that gives larvae, which called ezho, commonly known as hornet. The larvae of hornet bee are a favorite dish for them and seasonal. The larger sized workers that are hatched in the later part of the season become the queen the following year. When winter comes, the queen hides in the hole of wood or trees, and then comes out during early spring and builds their nest till October-November.

There are different varieties of hornets and it has been largely commercialized today. One kilogram of the biggest variety of hornet larvae called kavüzho cost not less than Rs.500/-. Some build their nest on the branches of tress, but a large majority of them build their nest under the ground. As the number of workers becomes larger, they gradually take out the earth expanding the hole for enlarging the hives. The biggest variety (kavüzho) take out even a hundred kilograms of earth and build up to 6-7 layers of hives, which is about 3 or more feet broad in diameter by average in some instances. Their color is back predominantly with red head and red stripe at the abdomen. It can be fatal if it stings. Therefore, they rear them in the jungle, a considerable distance away from the village.

1.10.4. FOOD HABIT

The Khezhas normally eat meal three times a day: morning, noon and evening. They are called, keche eh lewe, kölha eh lewe and tewe eh lewe. The stable foods of the Khezhas are rice, meat and different kinds of vegetables. Meat is a very important item in the Khezha menu. Their names are, votshü `pork’, fütshü `chicken’, tshütshü `dog meat’, keriekhö (also, kochy), `fish’ keníwö `frog’, ròcütshü `bird meat’, lebo `fresh-water snails’, also called`periwinkle’ tenicikhöloe `whelk’and retshü `meat of jungle animal’ are the most favorite dish for them. Besides, they also eat közho `grasshopper’, ewö `crab’, zhiprü `dragon-fly’, zhocü `larvas of hornets ‘ and so on.

Men also eat two varieties of non-poisonous snakes, namely, nelhi and kemhoh that are found nearby the paddy fields or surroundings of the river in the tropical area. Snake meat is called lenütshü.’ It is said that snake meat has medicinal value, and also enhances the strength and stamina for sportsman. But any form of dish from snake family is tabooed for women. Due to this reason it is also forbidden to cook this meat inside the house. Therefore, they usually cook them outside the house, especially at the porch. Pot, which had been used to cook the snake meat should not be used any more for cooking any other type of food. That is why they would keep this pot separately away from mixing with other pots in the house. According to their tale, women and snakes were enemies. As such, women were forbidden to eat any kind of dish, which is prepared from the form of snake.

Although, Khezhas cultivate a large amount of metrita `maize’, chübe `millet’, tochebe `Job’s tears’, etc. they are seldom used as staple food. They used mainly for feeding animals and fowls in the house. Tsüche `chilly’ form an indispensable ingredient and are cooked together with meat and vegetables. Besides cultivated ones, a large number of wild plants and bamboo shoots are used as vegetables. There are three varieties of bamboo shoot: kavüba, ciba and lanhüba. The first variety is normally grown, but the other two varieties are smaller in size and are found in the forest. Tathu `pickle’, which is their favorite in every meal are sometimes served in a separate dish. The dishes are designed in different forms, and are very sophisticated. The khöne `cooked rice’ and khuwe `curry’ are usually served together in the same dish.

Hazhu `wine made of rice’, which is slightly alcoholic, was the only sort of their drink in the past. Drinking water alone was very unusual even for the poorest people. However, this habit was abandoned after they embraced Christianity, as almost the entire population of Khezhas had embraced the religion, which forbids the use of alcoholic drinks.

1.10.5. MEDICINE

Khezhas have no great knowledge of herbal remedies. Very few herbs that they knew were often forgotten as the person who knew about some herbs hardly spread the knowledge of it to others due to the belief that the herb becomes ineffective if the people commonly known it. Parents, who knew some knowledge about it sometimes pass them to their children; but in some cases, they failed to do so. It may however, be interesting to describe some of the herbs used by the Khezhas for treating the patients.

(i) HERB FOR EXTERNAL TREATMENT:

Khezhas applied a kind of leaf called lepönü for external injuries. The leaves are pounded, mixed up with saliva and bandaged them with clean cotton cloth. They also used a variety of pulse leaf called ketsüchenü. This leaf is used even for boils, burns and inflammations. The leaf is slightly heated in the fire and muffled on the wound when it is warm. During winter, the soles of the feet are liable to crack and become very painful. The remedy for this is applying a poultice of the crushed stem of eky `orchid’ on the cracked portion.

For the scabies they usually apply a lotion made out of sago-palm known as kalütsüjü. As regards to the process of its preparation, the core of the tree is sever into pieces, put them in a small tin, a hole is open and affixed in it with a small bamboo pipe which is attached to another tin for collecting the drops of the liquid, and then carefully plastered the covers of both tin and adjoining portion of the pipe so as it is completely sealed to avoid air leakage. The tin that contains the core of palm is then burn in the fire and thus distilled them. In this way the liquid is collected by evaporation. In some cases, they also used very old pork fat known as tshütshöwe, which they usually preserved dry by hanging it above the hearth for even ten or more years. The longer its duration of preservation the more effective it becomes.

For the muscular, bone or vein pains, they massage with locally manufactured salt made of spring brine, and then muffle it with a particular variety of pulse leaf called tshürenü. The leaf is heated in the fire and then enveloped with a warm banana leaf. They also eat the half boiled seed of this pulse. For the sprains, there is some particular person in the village who knows how to set them right. This is very popular even today. When thorn has pierced the body and could not be extracted out, a variety of leaf called thoprü is applied. The leaf is mashed and insert in the hole, and then bandaged it so that the air may not penetrate. The thorn is automatically wringed out by the power of the herb after about 10 hours.

(ii) INTERNAL TREATMENT:

For the stomachache, they stoop red ash in a glass of water and drink its water when it is warm for immediate relief. For the permanent healing, they boiled a seed known as emü and drink its soup. Sometimes, they also massage the stomach with it when the pain becomes severe. Another kind of grass called netsö is also used. Its leaf is boiled and drunk. Since the stomach pain is common, Khezhas used to preserve this grass in their houses. For the stomach upset due to indigestion, they chew one kind of raw leaf called theriye. Sometimes the leaves are boiled and eaten as a menu with meals.

For the headache and fever, they boil chillies with bamboo shoot preserved in water known as kavüba along with a fermented black crab preserved dry known as thrawö, and drink its soup with or without rice. For fever, they eat the leaves called loriye. It is very bitter and is usually cooked along with rice, chillies and salt and eaten as food. For the serious cases such as when the patient’s eye become yellowish or in the case of swelling of the body, they boil one kind of tree bark grown in the lowlands. It has thick bark with plenty of juice. The juice becomes yellowish in color after it is boiled and is very bitter in taste. The name of the tree however is not known.

To stop any kind of loose motion, they eat and drink the liquid made of rice powder (ethi). They make bread out of it and eat. Banana (ngaache) is also usually prescribed. For dysentery, they prescribe the same tree bark, which is used for fever. For coughing, they drink honey, which has been preserved for some years. They also drink the juice of a variety of local onion known as chemere by mixing it with locally manufactured salt out of spring brine and boiled water. They also massage chest, throat and back of the neck with it.

1.10.5. FESTIVALS:

Khezhas have four festivals known as enyie in a year. However, the number of days for a festival and names also differ from village to village in many instances, though each appears to have the same purpose and ways of observing rituals are more or less the same for all the purposes. It is beyond the scope of this book to present elaborate description or, their comparative description. The descriptions presented here are just a hint mentioned and basically confined to my village Lekromi [lètromi]. The names of festivals (enyie) are, rünyie, tsükhenyie, selünyie, and dzünyie. Festivals are celebrated by killing large number of animals and fowls. Besides, they will also prepare special rice beer (hazhu) with a special variety of rice, known as menabe, for the occasions.

rünyie : It is a festival for harvesting which falls during early December, just after harvesting of paddy. It is celebrated for five days.

tsükhenyie : It is a festival for community wrestling (menoh) which is celebrated for three days in the early part of April. All the boys and also young married men participate in the wrestling. The wrestling takes place on the second day of festival.

Picture-5: Rich people offered feasts to the village to earn certain designated house, clothes, erect stone and so on.

On top of a stone are two brothers on their way to the field after school hour. Likewise, even to these days, students maintain their traditional values, “dignity of labor” and utilize their free time for productive works in addition to their academics.

sèlünyie : It is celebrated for two days in the later part of July or early part of August after the completion of terraced cultivation. This festival is celebrated for the purpose of taking relaxation and regaining the energy exhausted during cultivation.

dzünyie : After the completion of cultivation, the season for weeding comes. Thus, dzünie is celebrated for two days after the completion of weeding in the month of September

1.10.6. DANCE:

Khezhas never have any sort of dance for women. As for men there are two types, viz, meloophe and etshü. However, there is no word to denote ‘dance in Khezha’. For the former, they dance in group circling round the ground, singing, crossing and re-crossing the legs, jumping forwards and backwards, leaping one leg into the air two times, again touching the ground and so one. While for the latter, it may be called ‘war dance’. They divide the group into two, lifting the left fist above the shoulder with the pretension of holding the shield and the right fist at the shoulder level with pretension of holding the spear. One group moves forward as if attacking the enemy and the other group moves backward, the latter again move forward and vice versa.

1.10.8. MUSIC:

Khezhas do not have many musical instruments. Very few of them, played by their ancestors, are also forgotten today. According to the musical history of the Khezhas, their ancestor, Köza, slipped down and broke off his musical box on the way at the time of migration. Everything that contained in the box was destroyed. He could not compose any music or songs without a musical instrument. Thus, his offspring had to live without song and music for generation after generation. They felt lifeless as they neither could enjoy the occasion of merriment without music nor could they act love-feat through music. Since life became so dull and miserable they requested their neighbor, Süqami, the offspring of Süqa, to share their music and musical instruments with them. The latter agreed on payment basis for a certain period. It was therefore negotiated as, the offspring of Köza could sing any of their songs any time they like, but as for the musical instruments, they could play for only three months in a year. This was agreed upon on payment of an ox. Due to this historical agreement, the Khezhas played the musical instruments only between Buloto, the mehni for opening the new granary, observed in the middle of December, and the Tsükhenyie `wrestling festival’ in the middle of March.

A few musical instruments played by Khezha ancestors may be briefly discussed below:

khöcí (trumpet) : There are two types of khöcí. One is khöbo and lici. The former is made from the dried and hollow stem of the shrub of that name. The size of length varies from 4 to 6 feet or more depending on the choice of pitch. The latter is made from buffalo’s horn, about one and half feet in length roughly trimmed and cut into square at the wide end. Into the wide end a hollow wood about 4” long is fitted airtight so as to avoid air leakage. The sound of it can be heard from a distance of more than 10km away if it is blown from up-hills.

pirülö : It is made of small hollow stem of the shrub (khöbo) about 2 or 3 feet in length, completely blocked at one end and open at the other. There are two holes, one at each end, three inches from the end in each case. Its pitch varies according to the size of its length, and the few notes produced are particularly musical and liquid.

lübu : It is a single string instrument. A half gourd is covered with a pig’s bladder leaving a hole at the other side of the gourd. About three feet length of stick is fitted at the middle of the gourd, and on the stick is the string, which connects the bladder, a peg of wood is placed in between, which set apart the bladder and the string.

khöno : It is made out of a piece of thin flat twig called ezhi, about half an inch wide and 6 inches long. The center is cut away so as to leave a prong attached to the frame at one end. A string is fastened to this end, where the prong joins the frame, and another string at the other end of the string. By jerking the strings the prong is made to vibrate. The instrument is made to vibrate between the loops of the half open mouth, which acts as a sounding board, and when the mouth is widen the pitch becomes higher up and when it is narrowed down the pitch becomes lower.

1.10.9. GAMES:

Khezhas have separate games for men, women and children. They may be discussed below:

(i) GAMES FOR MEN:

Games played by the Khezha men are menoh `wrestling’, tshütse `high-jump’, zhoci `long-jump’, tsopu `shot-put’, kesü `tug-of-war’, füla and tsovü.

menoh: Wrestling is the most popular game among the Khezhas. Regarding the rules of the game, both the wrestlers grip across each other, the arms of one passing over the shoulder of the opponent and the other arm under his opponent’s arm. Gripping is allowed, but tripping, kicking, catching neck or any other means that may cause injury to the opponent are not allowed. Each contest consists of two rounds. If the hands, knees or any part of the body touched the ground, he is declared lost.

tshütse: Khezha high-jump is identical with that of the high jump played in the Olympic. Two poles, which are cut into layers of about an inch on one side of each post are erected about six feet apart from each other. A stick is placed loosely on the layer to enable it to fall easily when any part of the jumper’s body touched it. The player jumps over it by running from a sufficient distance. The stick is placed in a subsequent higher level till the jumper could jump over the level of the stick.

zhoci : There are three types of long-jumps, viz., bedí, terheh and tsoci. In bedí, the player stands at the line and jumps as far as he can, while terhe is similar to long-jump of the Olympic game. A line is marked; the player will run from a considerable distance and jump at the marked line as far as he can. In tsoci, a mark is made on a stone of sufficient height; the jumper from a standing position must touch it with both feet at once, with the mark being raised when reached. The jumper is wonderfully skilled that he kicks with both the feet together far higher than his own head, and yet not falls when he lands. This was more popular than the other two in the past, but since this is not introduced in the tournaments, the game has been completely overshadowed by other modern games.

tsopu : Khezhas have three types of shot-put. For the first type, the stone is very heavy and difficult to lift it up to the shoulder. The stone is lifted up on to the thigh and shot with both hands and thigh together. The stone for the second type is lighter and can easily be lifted up onto the shoulder. To shoot this, a permanent stage is erected about 2 feet in height, 5 feet in length and 4 feet in width and placed on it is a large flat stone. From the stage, they throw the stone by jumping while releasing the stone. The third type is identical with the actual shot-put of Olympic. A line is marked at the throwing position and if either foot crossed the line, it is fault.

kehsü : It is not as popular as other games even in the past. This is played only during festivals just for fun sake, and never as a serious game.

füla : It is played with a variety of dry stems of shrubs, about 4 feet in length. The stem is slogged while darting to make it fly as far as it can. The participant whose stem travels the farthest gets one point.

tsovü : It is played with stones. The weight of the stone depends on the capacity of the player to be able to throw it. One group will place their stones in a row and the other group will hit them away from a distance of about 20ft. A line is encircled round the stones, and the thrower must clear off all the stones away from the circle. Each player gets a chance to hit them. If they do not clear off the stones, they will place their stones letting their opponents hit them. Simultaneously they will restart from where they lost the set. Clearing the entire stones at one go is one set and each game consists of six sets. The throwers continue their game as long as they keep on clearing the stones till they finish the game. They will then place their stones letting their opponents hit them again.

(ii) GAMES FOR WOMEN:

There are only two types of games for women, namely, thözhy and thopu. The procedure of both the games are identical, simply rolling and hitting games, which are played in two groups.

thözhy : It is played with a kind of round and flat seed of a creeper which itself is called thözhy. The ground for this game is marked which is about 15ft in length and 4ft in width. Its length depends on the choice of the players but the breadth is always constant. A small flat stone is placed at one end and hit with the seed from the other end by following different ways of rolling (ways of rolling are slightly different from village to village).

thopu: It is played with a round and flat stone. The stone is dressed smoothly so that it rolls faster. The ground marked for it must not be less than 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. At one end they place the same creeper seed (thözhi) according to the number of the opponents, and hit them with the stone by following different procedures of rolling the stone. They must clear off all the seeds and as long as they keep on clearing them, they continue the game till all the 5 sets are over. If they failed to clear off the seeds, their opponents will get the chance to hit them before they complete the sets. Simultaneously they will restart from where they lost the set.

(iii) GAMES FOR CHILDREN:

Games played by Khezha children are, kehtshe, köphanö, acho-ahcho and su. The first game kehtshe is a war game, while acho-ahcho and su are tag games.

kehtshe: It is a kind of war game and is played by boys only. Players are divided into two groups, and they shoot each other with a variety of wild begonia stem known as kutruba. The player is out, if he is hit by the stem of the rival group. Likewise, they play till the entire players of either group are out.

köphanö: It is identical with that of ‘hide and seek game’. Participants will be divided into two groups and search for each other. If the other group finds one, he is declared out. Likewise, the game continues till all the participants of either group are found.

acho-ahcho: In this game, a participant will chase other participants and touch their feet with his. If a runner’s foot is touched, he will join his friend in chasing others to touch their feet. The ground is encircled and if any runner runs out of the circle, he too will join the chaser to touch the feet of the runners. Likewise, all of them take parts till the end of the game.

su: In this game, one of the participants tries to touch others while humming in one breathe. A place is encircled for the chaser’s home, and unless the chaser returns home before losing his humming, the runners will counter attack and touch him. If any runner touches the chaser after he loses his humming, someone else will replace him. If however, the chaser touches anyone of the runners, the runner will become his soldier, and chase the remaining runners. Likewise the game continues till the last runner is touched.

1.11. MANUFACTURES

Before the industrial goods were available to them, Khezhas manufactured most of their cloths and tools by themselves. However, Khezhas never practiced pottery works and the articles such as clay pots, jars, etc., were purchased from Chokris, a neighboring tribe, who were expert in pottery works. Some of the popular items manufactured by the Khezhas are discussed below:

1.11.1. CLOTHES:

Weaving is considered as part of the domestic works of women even to this day. In the earlier days, it was tabooed for a man, not only to put on a weaving frame on his body, but also even to go under the frame. So superstitious was their belief that, if a man put on a weaving frame on his body or even went under it, he might become tenye `luckless’ in life. Misfortunes would entail on him in whatever attempt he made, especially in hunting animals, warfare, or any plans in his life. Thus, he can never be a successful man.

Such were the tradition that, weaving was solely a woman’s job. Although, this restriction is no more existed today, it still looks odd and unusual for a man weaving a cloth in the traditional way. The implements used for weaving are: loje, lopö, dzüna, lotshetshüka, dölhö and edzü’. Before the metal blade was available, the length of woven cloths was cut with a variety of bamboo blades.

Before modern goods were available to them, Khezhas manufactured cloths from three different types of raw materials such as töpha ‘cotton’, köthro ‘jute’ and thevo `nettle’, a genus of urtica stem grown in uncultivated land. Khezhas were, however, not experts in dyeing of threads. Therefore, the color of threads such as green, red, blue and black were mostly purchased from Angamis (their neighboring tribes).

töpha: Cotton was seeded by a small roller of wooden machine known as phanyotshü. The cotton was then swerved with an instrument known as töphalü. Then it was spun on to a spindle called kezhütshü. The spindle was spun with the right hand against the thigh by holding the cotton in the left. Both hands were used in twisting the cotton. As it was spun, the thread was gradually wound round the wooden stem of the spindle and steeped in hot rice starch, hardening it as it dried, after which it was again wound on to a light bamboo frame called dölhö making it to spin readily round a central upright. From the dölhö, it was again wound into a ball called lotshü.

Picture-6 : A Khezha woman is weaving a shawl.

köthro and thevó: The process of manufacturing köthro and thevo were alike. After removing the leaves from the stem, the bark of the stem was taken out and scorched in the sunshine. The cord was again soaked in the water for a day or two, after which the cord was split into pieces, and joined together by spinning. The spun cord was then steeped in the hot water with ashen gray in a large pot, boiled for an hour, threshed out with a wooden hammer and then washed off the ashes. After which it was again wound on to the dölhö as in the case of spinning cotton. From dölhö it was again wound into lotshü. Thus, it was ready for weaving.

1.11.2.WOOD-WORK:

As mentioned earlier, Khezhas were comparatively skilled wood workers. Before nothing of the sort of a saw or plane was available, all the designs were made with a kind of axe known as kesa, and locally manufactured file and chisel were used for shaping and smoothening them. Some of the important items made by them with wood are ekhö ‘plate’, eha ‘cup’, lacye ‘spoon’, epah ‘pounding bench’, tshürü ‘barrel’, ezü ‘bed’, mekhi ‘seat or bench’, etsü ‘long barrel for storing wine’, kietsa ‘gate’, cirö ‘board for front gable of the house’, mele ‘plank’, kedzetshüka ‘lath’, labu ‘box’, kietsükhe ‘door’, kiecí ‘house-horn’, etc. They may be briefly discussed below:

epah: It is a massive table-like object hewed from the lone trunk of a tree about twelve to fifteen feet long, with a broad keel and round holes which are bored at the intervals of about two feet. The breadth of the surface hole being about seven inches in diameter and its bottom narrowed down to about two inches in diameter. All the different grains produced by the Khezhas are pounded or ground from here.

tshürü: It is a huge wooden barrel, hewed from the trunk of a tree. The hole is bored with an axe and then smoothened with a file, its size being about 5 feet in height, while its breadths depends on the size of the tree which may be as big as six feet in diameter in which rice and other grains are stored. Sometimes, they even store wine in it.

ezü: It is a vast single piece of bed hewed out of a huge tree trunk with a broad keel.

mekhi: Khezhas make different sizes of seat hewed from a single piece of tree trunk. The seats are made for keeping in the porch, which would be six or more feet long, while the ones in the hearth or inside the house are not longer than two feet. The internal portion is bored leaving the board as thin as one and half inches.

etsü: This is bored when a person offers a feast to the village known as jüze. The barrel is hewed from a single piece of a huge tree. The length of the tree trunk may vary from 15 feet to 20 feet. The tree trunk usually chosen is round and evenly smooth on all sides for the sake of beauty. A hole is bored on the tree trunk along the inner curved surface of the tree leaving about one and half inches of wood at the circumference. This is done so that the log of wood would remain strong and maximum area for the prepared wine would be maintained. The area of the hole depends on the size of the tree trunk.

kietsa: A Khezha village is permanently fenced with a variety of strong thorny creeper to prevent enemies entering the village. At the entrance, they construct strong gates with stone concrete. To open and close the gate they put strong doors made of single piece of board. On the door, they curve heads of men, buffalo and human figures.

ciro: Huge boards with sufficient length, to reach from the ground to the roof of the house, are often placed in the front wall of the house, and on these boards they curve the heads of men, buffalos and mithun. Curving human figures on the board in any kind of houses are never allowed except on the door of the village gate.

ekhö: Khezha plates are made of wood only. However, they are so skillfully designed that many people go for this fancy even today. The plates are curved with a special variety of wood and the more they are being used the glossier they become. There are three types: The first has three legs slightly curved. The second is without leg and the third one is smaller in size with or without legs, which is made mainly for keeping chips or other eatable things while drinking wine.

eha: Before they embraced Christianity, Khezhas used to drink only rice beer called hazhu. Drinking water alone was unusual even among the poorest people. As such, they made cups made of either bamboo or horn of mithun for drinking hazhu. The length of the cup is usually about one foot long, which can contain about two liters of beer.

lacye: Khezhas make different types of spoon for different purposes. All the spoons are made of either bamboo or wood. Spoons of different designs are made of wood for eating, or stirring food or serving rice, while spoons for serving curry are usually made of bamboos.

kewuthsü: A wooden machine made of a heavy log for grinding grains. The log is cut into two parts making the heavier part as the base. Its upper surface is then trimmed into oval shape on which the slots are cut from the center till the last edge all around to enable the grinded grains fall through them when the machine of the upper log is slewed. At the center of it, a stack is fixed which acts as the axis. Similarly, the lower surface of the upper log is trimmed through into the exact oval shape of the upper log and slit it into equal size and equal number of the slots that are slit on the upper surface of the bedding log. At its center, a big hole is bored gradually narrowing down in which the grains are contained. A handle is fixed at one side on this to drive the upper log rotate. A smaller hole is then bored at the center to enable the stack fitted on the bedding log that is inserted through it: the grains that are contained in the container drop automatically down through the hole to the connecting surface when the machine is set to motion.

1.11.3. METAL WORK:

Metal work is the men’s job by tradition. The expert smiths make good spears, choppers, blade of spades, axes, etc. Metal works are done as a part time job, and never as a profession. The smithies are open sheds either in front of the house or at the side of the porch of the main house. To stain black the bases of spearheads, choppers, axes, etc., the sap of a wild fig called kadichejü is used. The iron is dipped into the sap for a while when it is hot.

1.11.4. BASKET WORK:

Like metal work, basketwork is men’s job by tradition, not for religious restrictions, but a kind of the division of labor between men and women. As weaving cloths is women’s work, metal, wood and basket works are the jobs of men. Baskets are made either to stand in the house or to be carried on the back. They are briefly discussed below:

chepfüra: It is woven with a young bamboo thong in a net-work pattern with a broad bottom, though broader at the top. It is used for carrying firewood, vegetables, etc.

ekha: It is woven tight with cane thong. The thread is so fine that the basket is virtually woven watertight. The work is done obliquely so that it produces rows of threads. The basket is used only for carrying rice, beer and other miscellaneous things and never with ordinary articles.

cherü: It is the costliest among all the baskets and is considered very valuable. The basket is carried by girls only, and is not usually used for field-works or carrying ordinary articles. In the past, this was considered as a part of a girl’s dress and she had to go to their husband’s house by carrying it at the time of kiela `wedding’. The basket is woven with the finest cane, and its design being in a checker pattern at the upper portion and a twill pattern at the lower portion.

kephu: It is a head-band for carrying the baskets or loads, plaited in a chequer pattern from cane, rolled at both the ends and knitted tightly into a loop. The cane cord is then inserted into the hole making a strong knot at the end so that it will not slip off even if they carry very heavy load.

ebuh: The basket is made with a twig known as ècí, and is woven in the chequer pattern. On top of it is a lid with a pointed head woven in similar pattern. Thongs are big and strong enough to stand even if the basket is filled up with grain. It is used as granary and one ebu can contain up to 20 quintals of grain.

ezö : It is a kind of huge mat used for drying grain. The mat is woven tight with bamboo thong in a twill pattern. Its size is about fifteen feet long and ten feet wide.

melhe: There are four types of melhe namely, chüzho, lhedo, zatre and melhekhö. All these baskets are woven either with cane or a variety of twigs called kevi in a twill pattern. Of all the baskets, chüzho is the biggest in size, which is used for storing grain temporarily. Lhedo is slightly smaller in size and is used for measuring the paddy at the time of harvesting. Zatre is used for measuring the paddy or other crops or corns for bartering. However, this basket is not seen any more as the barter system is no more existing today. Melhekhö is a kind of basket-plate used for keeping meat or any other eatables while drinking beer. The basket is knitted watertight with fine cane fiber to make it free from leakage of soup. A plaited handle is attached at one side of the basket.

kathibu: It is used for keeping dresses and valuable items of women. The basket is made of either cane or twig (kevi) with a pointed lid. It is woven watertight with very fine thong in a twill pattern.

tshüzo: It is a kind of sieve having a broad bottom perforated in the meshes to enable the smaller objects fall off while sifting.

merü: It is another kind of sieve without perforation. The sieve is woven with a particular type of twig called ezhi, and is used for sifting rice. Its design is made in wicker pattern with a broad bottom, oval shaped and about two and half feet in breadth and three and half feet in length.

merüfücü: It is made of a bamboo thong woven tight in twill pattern. The edge of one side is broad, but the opposite end is smaller. This is used for blowing off the chaff when harvesting.

1.12. AGRICULTURE:

Agriculture is the main source of income for Khezhas. A Khezha’s life depends mostly on crops, spends most of his days in his field. Almost all the religious ceremonies are designed to protect and boost his crops. Dignity of labor is prevalent in Khezha community. Every family owns their land and works in their own field. No one earns his/her living by working in other’s land.

1.12.1. IMPLEMENTS:

The agricultural implements used by the Khezhas are : meri ‘axe’, eza ‘chopper’, kathi ‘pick-axe’, kapfü ‘spade’, köbvo ‘mallet for breaking soil’, tshüde ‘mallet for pinning stakes’, kewöh ‘rake’, köprha ‘a bunch of stakes used for harvesting’, tecy ‘sickle’, and nyopfo. All these implements are manufactured by themselves except kathi which is purchased from outside. Uses of each implement are briefly discussed below:

meri: It is used for felling and chopping the trees of the forest when they go for shifting cultivation.

eza: It is used for cutting small branches of trees and grass.

kathi: It is used for loosening and leveling the earth.

kapfhü: It is the implement commonly called ‘spade’, but its shape is different from the one commonly used by others. The spade that Khezhas used is made of a flat spoon-shaped blade, the handle of which is bound with thongs of cane or bamboo to a crooked stick, making an inverted V-shaped. It is used for digging, leveling and shifting the earth, ploughing, weeding and so on.

köbvo: It is a long handled wooden mallet of T-shape, the head being about one foot and its handle about three feet long. It is used for breaking soil in the dry field.

tshüde: It is a wooden hammer used for pinning the stakes into the ground for the support of the ridges of the field.

kewöh: There are three types of kewöh. The first one is made of a bamboo split at the end into five or more spikes which are bent at a right angle to the head and bound with a bamboo thong across the spikes, and used for scraping, digging up weeds and loosening the earth. The second one is made of a simple piece of bamboo, which is bent into a small hoop, the crossed ends forming the handle, which is used for the same purpose as the first type such as scraping, digging up weeds and loosening the earth. The third one is made like köbvo, bored holes on the head and affixed spikes in them. It is used for clearing the waste matters in the dry field.

köprha: About six pieces of long bamboo spikes are tied together onto the handle spreading the other ends of the spikes, which is used for removing grains.

tecy: It is a kind of a sickle, consisting of a light curved metal blade about a foot long set by a tang in a wooden handle, having rude saw edges. It is used for cutting the plant of paddy when harvesting and also grasses.

nyopfo: It is a kind of perforated shallow basket made of bamboo thongs with the handles made of rope or cane thongs on both the opposite sides and used for throwing or transferring the earth, especially when digging terraced field.

1.12.2. TYPES OF CULTIVATION:

Khezhas have three types of cultivation, viz., terrace cultivation, shifting cultivation and gardening.

1.12.2.1. TERRACE CULTIVATION:

Terrace cultivation (khölo) is largely adopted by Khezhas. The terraces may be near the hillsides, by the banks of the streams or on the valleys. Some of the terraces go up the hillsides to a great height, and show considerable skill in their formation. The stones taken out of the soil are used to bank up the walls of the terraces and also used for the construction of canals for irrigation.

There are two types of terraced fields, viz., kedalo ‘wet field’ and ketsholo ‘dry field’. In the case of the wet field, the water is stored in the field throughout the year, while in the case of the dry field; the field remains dry during dry season. It is irrigated only during the time of cultivation. The rainfall in Khezha area being heavy, many terraced fields, which are located nearby the streams where there is regular flow of water are kept wet throughout the year. Because they are easier to plough, the crop yielding is also generally higher than those of the dry fields. Fishes are also reared in these wet fields enabling them to yield double crops at a time. Since the fields, which are located far away from the stream, cannot get sufficient water they are kept dry till the start of rainy season.

In both the fields, they grow different varieties of rübe ‘paddy’. Some of the popular names are: fürübe, tengabe, menabe and tengube. Some of the varieties are imported from outside which are usually named after foreign name or named after the person who first brought the seed, eg., japanirü ‘Japanese rice’, borü ‘Burmese rice’, pelhìrü ‘Pelhi’s rice’ (Pelhi is a person’s name who first spread the seed); mesulurü ‘Mesulumi’s rice’ (Mesulumi is a Khezha village from where this variety of paddy was spread to other Khezha villages). Fürübe is also called kehabe ‘red rice’ because it is red in color. Similarly, tenábe is sometimes called ketrobe ‘white rice’ because its color is white, and menàbe ‘sticky rice’ as it is sticky.

Picture-7: Terraced fields of a Khezha village.

1.12.2.2. SHIFTING CULTIVATION:

Formerly, Khezha ancestors grew large quantity of töpha `cotton’, köthro `jute’, mathrüvü `tobacco’, besides other crops discussed below, but as the industrial goods are readily available now, these are abandoned today. Replacing them, the growing of potato, cabbage, peas, onions, beans, etc., have become popular and widely commercialized. There are two types of shifting cultivation or jhumming, viz., melö and chülo. Some crops do not grow well in the tropical climate, the case is reverse for some other crops such as chilly, tomato, banana, etc. that cannot yield fruit in the cold climate. Some crops grow well in any type of climatic conditions. For this matter, Khezhas are specially blessed, because they can grow any type of crops as discussed below:

Picture-8: A Khezha boy harvesting maize from his field after school hour.

melö: It is cultivated in the location where the climate is warm. Here, they cultivate a particular variety of rice known as melörü, which grows only in the shifting cultivation. Thus, it is named after the field itself. Besides melorü, they also grow chübe ‘millet’, metríta ‘maize’, tochebe ‘Job’s tear’, tsüche ‘chilly’, hamö ‘pumpkin’, payiche ‘cucumber’, bongoloche ‘tomato’, kuduche ‘brinjal’, vüdo ‘ginger’; different varieties of pulses such as potíche, ketsüche, köbache, karhü, tshüre; two types of soya-beans namely, erhö which is yellow and dali which is brown; two types of sesame namely, potsü which is black and kení which is gray in color.

chülo: It is cultivated in the cold area adjacent to the forest. Here, they crops such as, millet, maize, gray sesame, pumpkin, beans, potato, cabbage, garlic and variety of beans known as tooniche.

The method of cultivation for both melö and chülo is alike. Trees are felled, cut down from low jungles and burnt after they are dried. Thus, the ashes fertilize the field. The land is then cleaned and seeds are sown. Felling of trees and clearing of the jungle are done during September and burnt them in February-March. The end of March and April is when sowing of seeds are done.

1.12.2.3. GARDENING:

Khezhas value kitchen garden a great importance for various reasons: a real unknown source of income. Spaces by the sides of the houses are skillfully utilized for growing vegetables, fruits, sugar cane and so on. As we can see from the picture below, by the sides of the house they grow a special variety of sugar cane, which is soft and juicy. The rest of the spaces are utilized for growing vegetables. Growing vegetables by the sides of the house, not only produces additional source of income. It is also beneficial even in health point of view, because the family dishes always include fresh vegetable.

Terraced fields near the village where water cannot be irrigated are generally converted into gardens. Gardening is done to grow vegetables and fruits for domestic consumptions. The common vegetables grown in the garden are tsüche ‘chilly’, different kinds of beans such as potíche, tooniche, köbache, ketsüche, etc., thöne ‘a variety of spinach’, payiche `cucumber, bongoloche ‘tomato’, nenaye ‘mustard leaves’, different varieties of thönedzü `garlic’ namely, khova, hapö and chèmerè, vüdü ‘ginger’, etc. The common fruits that grow in the garden are, metríyìche ‘peach’, zözöche ‘black-berry’, ngaache ‘banana’, torache ‘pomegranate’ and methíche ‘orange’. Non-indigenous fruits like apple, plum, guava, etc., are also grown. Many of them grow sugar cane for domestic consumptions in the garden and at the edges of the paddy fields.

Picture-9: A kitchen garden above the house in a Khezha village.

1.12.3. WAYS OF CULTIVATION:

During cultivation and harvesting field companies known as lezhetro are formed, which consists of boys and girls roughly of equal age. The number of the company may consist of only two or in some instances it can be up to thirty or more depending on the convenience. Because they work in the fields of each member by rotation, each member must get the labor of the company. Therefore, if the number of the company is too large, some members may not get the work done in their fields within the need of time. In some other cases, rich people hire a company for the day by feeding them. To compensate the wages, the owner must offer them a feast during the festival.

During harvesting, boys and girls usually volunteer themselves to carry the load of old people to the house. In other cases, rich people or aged persons invite children for morning meal so that these children in turn help them in carrying paddy to their house. The beneficiary will then invite all their helpers to the harvesting feast. Similarly, during cultivation, young men and women or any able persons help the old and sick persons, and in turn they will be invited to the feast of cultivation by the beneficiary.

1.12.4. TREE PLANTATION:

One of the most striking tradition is the growth and preservation of trees by the Khezhas. In spite of their regular shifting cultivation, the trees remain intact everywhere in the Khezha area. Tree plantation is highly regarded by the Khezhas, and they never leave the field fallow without transplanting the trees in them.

As the method of their tree transplantation goes, the nursery trees would be transplanted after the seedlings are over in the first year of cultivation. Seedlings are normally over during March, which is followed by transplantation of nursery trees in April-May. Cultivation continues for four years and the nursery trees are taken care along with the crops. The land usually becomes less fertile after cultivating for four years, but the trees become big enough to stand on their own without further nurturing them. Thus, they leave the fields fallow, but low jungles will not hinder the growth of trees any more.

1.12.5. IRRIGATION SYSTEM:

The terraced fields are irrigated by channels, which carry water from some streams or torrents. Each terrace cannot have its own channel. It obtains water either from the next terrace above it or from one of the terraces in the same row, the terraces being so carefully graduated that the water can flow from terrace to terrace round the whole range of fields. Water is also often carried from one terrace to another terrace in a hollow bamboo called jüla, which passes over other terraces and channels in between. This is done because irrigation system is strictly followed by tradition. No one can get water from any channel at their will or supply through another’s field unless it had already been practiced from the beginning when the field was dug on the agreement by which the owner of the other field had consented. The tradition is such that, the water is usually divided up, either by tapping the channels or separating them into two or more runnels, and rights of over flow, tapping, etc., may be transferred. In many cases, it can be seen that one man’s field is dried while those immediately adjoining is flooded, or a field at the end of one line is dried while that immediately above is full of water. This is because the water has to go right away round the spur of a hill according to the tradition and back again before the dried field gets its share. There are some certain laws regarding the right of tapping water which are discussed below:

Picture-10: Terraced fields of a Khezha village Lines between the paddy fields are water channels.

(i) The first man to dig a channel for irrigation from a new stream becomes the owner of the stream. No other person has the right to tap from his channel or from the same stream above his channel without his prior permission. If anyone did so and the original owner had complained, he must immediately stop the work and the owner of the stream is not liable for any sort of compensation towards the expenditure incurred by him. Instead, he is liable to pay the cost of the damages to the owner, if the latter had sued for any damages.

(ii) No one can use other’s field for channeling water, but he can only tap the water from the channel in a hollow bamboo, or by any other means that is passing over other’s terrace.

(iii) No one can divert or block the traditional water channel of the terraces. If anyone violated the traditional channel, he could be fined according to the weight of the damages caused by him to the owner.

(iv) Anyone has a right to dig a water channel across the uncultivated land of someone else, but a polite and a formal request must be made from the owner, and the owner of the field has no right to object to the request. The owner however, has every right to object the request if it was not made in a polite form and if it was hurtful to his sentiment. If the owner does not grant the request, the appeal may be made from the Village Assembly or if they are from different villages, the judges of both the villages may deal it under the Khezha law. The usual punishment for this is imposing fine on the owner. If, however, the judges found that the request was made in an impolite form that could hurt the feelings of the owner, the appeal could be considered kebakebi ‘void’.

1.13. RELIGION

Earlier anthropologists had gravely misconceived about the religious belief of the Nagas as to be “animism.” Even in this age, the theologians of the native Nagas who wrote about their ancestors’ belief blindly aped what others had said without going in dept. Nothing seems to be greater unfortunate than this.

Khezhas were neither animists nor idolaters even before they embraced Christianity. They never had any sort of priest nor had they a place for worship, yet they followed strict precedence in religious observations. The religious practices of the Khezhas may be said to be more of ethical rather than worshipping a particular entity as God, for they never seemed to not have a clear concept about the existence of God as the Almighty who is supreme and the creator of all beings. Thus, their religious belief was a somewhat similar to Sinic religions as opposed to Semitic or Aryan. It is a universal phenomenon that religion, culture and tradition are always interlinked, hence the cultural ethos. It is therefore, paramount importance to value one’s own cultural ethos that is positive in the sight of men and God.

1.13.1. DEITIES AND SPIRITS:

Khezhas, however, had a clear concept about the existence of the spirits. This may be the reason that after the spread of Christianity among them, new names have come into used demarcating between the two religious groups: Kehumi `Christians (people those who belong to the meeting)’ and Rölenükezümi `Non-Christians (people who follow the religion of the spirits)’.

The spirits are classified into two clear-cut divisions between human spirit and non-human spirit. The human spirit is again classified into two: rokwe and engu. Similarly, non-human spirits are classified into three categories: römi, ema and kamüphremì.

romi: There are two categories of römi : erö kewe ‘good spirit’ or tsüpherömi ‘spirit of the sky’, and erö kesü ‘evil spirit’. The former is beneficent; while in contrary, the latter was maleficent.

The nature of erö kewe and tsüpherömi are similar and sometimes difficult to distinguish them. They are benevolent and Khezhas believe that good spirits and the spirit of the sky use to protect good and honest people. All the good blessings such as wealth, good health, strength, knowledge, good luck, grains in the house, etc are believed to come from them. Also, they use to protect human beings from the inflictions of evil spirits. Thus, they performed rituals for them for various purposes on different occasions.

Spirits of the sky are believed to be the protector of the crops in the field. Hence, they perform rituals for them so that they may send good rain and protect their crops in the field. The spirits of the sky also use to guide metymi `prophet and prophetess’. They believe that these spirits use to frequently visit the earth and in some cases use to have fellowship with men. The prophets and prophetesses are able to tell prophesies only in the presence of the spirits of the sky.

On the contrary, evil spirits are malevolent that use to inflict human beings and in some certain cases, destroyed or caused them to die. They caused sickness, inflictions, death, etc. There are also different categories of evil spirits. Some are more deadly, while others are less. The most dreaded one is known as rözü, which lives in the streams and deep forest. Anyone who encountered it would never be spared, either they would be killed instantaneously, or by severe headache or stomachache, ultimately through which the victim would succumb to its affect.

ema : It is a kind of evil spirit, but it never causes physical harm to men, but haunts people in the lonely places or on the way in the jungle when people come to the village late in the night by throwing sand, earth or pebbles at the people; shakes the branches of trees, bushes and sometimes producing the sound of strong wind to frighten people.

kamüphremì : It is a dreaded spirit. It never directly touches people, but sucks the blood and eats the heart of human soul (engu). When a man’s engu is killed, the evil spirit would show its heart to the owner. As soon as the person saw the heart he would collapse and die there instantaneously. Kamüphremì is also cowardly; hence they always go in groups. It is afraid to encounter people going in-groups or even of a single person whose rokwe is strong. Sometimes they would fall down and break their limbs when running away from them. That is why there are so many of them whose limbs are impaired.

1.13.2. HUMAN SOUL:

Khezhas believed two types of souls existed in every individual, namely, engu and rokwe.

Engu is powerless and senseless. But a man survived by its presence. One would become sick seriously if it is separated from him and could even die if it happened for a longer duration. When anybody fell sick after returning from fields or elsewhere, it is feared that his soul did not follow him, thus the cause of his illness. In some cases, the patient uses to frequently see some particular location in dream. In such a case, someone, particularly the relatives of the patient would go to that location and call out the name of the patient to come home with the caller. Due to this fear, if they built any temporary shelter in the jungle or on the roadside, it is always preferred to burn down the shelter before departure. In most of the cases, before leaving the field or any shelter by the roadside, parents usually mention the names of the children and call them one by one to follow even if the children are physically with them.

Rokwe is another human soul, which rests in every individual’s life. Human knowledge comes from it and without it the sense of human beings would become like animals. Sometimes, a man’s rokwe remains strong, while in some occasions it remains weak. Evil spirits cannot harm him when his rokwe remains strong and any kind of fortune may favor him at that time. But when his rokwe is weak, evil spirits may harm him at that time, and even a man cannot kill an enemy or an animal. Therefore, he uses to listen to his dreams and examine whether his rokwe is strong or not. It is interesting to note that, in Khezha the word ‘rokwe’ is related to luck as shown in the words: rokwewe (rokwe `spirit’ +we `good”) ‘good luck’ and rokwesü (rokwe+sü `bad’) ‘bad luck’.

1.13.3. LIFE AFTER DEATH:

Khezhas believe in the immortality of the soul of man. It is believed that a dead man’s engu uses to linger on in his house for a month or more. Therefore, the seat of a dead man at the dinning place is usually left vacant at least for a month. It is also believed that the engu of good, honest persons or children used to visit the house in the form of a butterfly. Therefore, butterflies entering the house are usually not killed.

They also believe that the rokwe of a man is susceptible to either happiness or misery after his death depending on his deeds when living on earth. There are two types of röreh (village of the spirit) `celestial village’. One is a home of happiness where good spirits live, and the other where evil spirits live. The rokwe of good and honest people go and live in the home of happiness, while bad and dishonest people go to the home of misery.

When a Khezha dies, the eldest man of the clan would light the fire, and walk around the grave and then a little away from the grave with the fire, before the dead body is buried. This is done with the belief that the brightness of the fire may guide the rokwe to the celestial village. When a man dies, all his weapons must be buried with his body. Sometimes, evil spirits use to obstruct his way when proceeding to the celestial village. In some other cases, if the man had killed an enemy or a tiger, their spirits haunt him or try to take revenge on him on the way. If such things happened, he may clear his way with the weapons buried with him. The eldest man in the clan will then bless him saying “Do not be afraid to proceed, for you have already secured the blessings of the mighty spirit, and thus you had already overpowered your enemies earlier. Even today, the good is yours”. Similarly, when a woman dies, all her good dresses and ornaments must be buried along with her corpse. Because there were instances, that the spirit of the woman appeared in dreams of her husband or dear ones, or sometimes through metymi and in some cases even in reality, demanding for a particular article saying that she could not proceed as there were so many friends with beautiful dresses waiting for her and that it was so embarrassing to meet them with shabby dress or without the particular dress, or in the case of man, a some particular weapon saying that he was unable to withstand the enemy without such a weapon.. In such a situation, they have to dig out the grave and again bury along with the corpse the particular article the deceased demanded.

1.13.4. KEHYÜ :

The word ‘kehnü’ can be used in two ways. One is used as the special day when the family or the village had to perform some special rituals. For example, when someone had violated religious law, kehnü is observed to purify the guilt. In all the religious restrictions the word ‘kehnü’ is used. One family alone or the whole village can observe it. When a family observes kehnü, nobody outside the house, including the member who had gone out, is allowed to enter inside the house on that day. Similarly, when the village observed it, no outsiders, including the villager who had gone out of the village could enter inside the village on that day. The villager could return only after the day of kehnü is over.

Kehnü is also used as moral law of the individual. In this context, it is so loosely used sometimes that it refers not only the breach of the strict religious rule or the breach of a social law, theft for example, but to the most trivial matter of purity. Thus it can also be explained as simply a moral law of the individual. For instance, if the father gives his child the banana skin when the child cries for the banana or anything, which is not eatable; it is considered kehyü. Likewise, it is kehyü to clear the excreta on the road side, spit on others, deceive others, over eating or drinking, mistreating orphans or someone who is weaker, including animals. It is also said to be kehnü to keep quiet when one hears someone calling him, or damaging anything knowingly that belonged to someone else, besides stealing. It is also said to be kehnü to kill an enemy after he called out ‘father’ and surrendered. It is kehnü for children to disobey the parents. In the same manner, it is kehnü for parents to beat children with anger. Therefore the utterance of kehnü as, Kehnü a. `It is kehnü.’ is part of every day life.

In social life, in the matter of dresses for instance, we may compare the kehnü, which taboos a man who had not taken a head of an enemy to wear a warrior dress, the insignia of the successful warrior. With the word, kehnü, it prohibits a man from not merely putting on but even laying across or against his body a petticoat of a woman, or to go under the warp of weaving for weaving is a woman’s possession. Likewise, it is kehnü for a woman to make a war cry or wear any sort of dress, which is of men’s dress.

1.13.5. MEHYI:

It is almost similar to that of the Sabbath for Jews. The difference being that, Jewish people observe their Sabbath every Saturday of the week, while Khezhas observe their mehni every first day of the month. Besides the mehni for the first day of the month, Khezhas also observe a particular mehni called “eno” for seven (7) days every year during the month of September. This is observed in the form of worshipping the spirit of the sky for they fear that natural calamities may occur unless they do so. Thus, they observe it when the paddies in the field are about to be ripped.

Sometimes, mehni is observed when anyone broke the law of the village or of the Khezha community. If the offence concerns the village to which the culprit belonged, the mehni would be observed by that village only. If however, it affected the whole Khezha community, then all the Khezha villages would observe it together on the same day. For instance, there is a very old tree living at the first established village (Methrore) from where the Nagas were believed to be migrated to different directions. They believe that natural calamities always happen when any of its branches is broken. Therefore, if any of its branches is broken, the whole Khezha community will observe mehni and perform rituals in the form of praying to the spirit of the sky so that no such calamities may occur.

On the day of mehni it is prohibited (kehnü) to work in the field, even a stone should not be placed in the water channel in the field. If anybody violated the rules, the culprit may be either fined heavily or in some cases, exiled from the village for a certain period according to the weight of the offence. Sometimes the village or the whole Khezha community may have to observe another mehni for breaking the earlier mehni, for purifying the guilt.

1.13.6. LENYÜ (Ritual):

Khezha ancestors believed that they must revere their good spirit for whose blessings and protections, food and drinks were available. So the giver must be revered before eating or drinking. Likewise, they would offer the first fruit or crop to their good spirit before they consumed them. Before eating or drinking, a Khezha had to cast down a small quantity of food or drink on to the ground in the form of offering to the good spirit, which would be followed by touching his chest, left and right shoulders and then the forehead, which is called kepolinyü. This signifies as “my life is in your mighty hand, sickness, misfortune, obscenity, etc. may not occur in my life, and as I partake this, may the food in this plate or drink in this cup not exhaust quickly”.

When anyone of the family was sick and could not be healed, they would let out a cock in the jungle far away from the village by performing certain ritual. They believed that the cock takes away the illness of misfortune and it was a very bad omen if the cock returned home.

There were various ways of performing lenyü depending on the nature of occasion. For example, to open the granary of the new paddy of the year, the Mewö (chief of ritual performance of the village) must fix a particular day for opening the granaries of the new paddy they had stored in the granaries (which would be observed together by the whole village). Till such time, no family would consume the new paddy of the year. On this day, the Mewö would announce for the granaries to be opened early in the morning before anybody went out from the house. After the Mewö made his announcement, the father of the house would go to one of the granaries where the new paddies were stored, would murmur a few words in the form of prayer such as “romi (in this case, it addresses the spirit which brings the blessings), you have provided good wind, rain and protected my crops, if I now open the granary, may the good fortune be in my house, and as anyone of my family members takes out the grains, may it be mepu-melö `slow in exhaustion’. After the prayer, he would take out a small quantity of paddy and pound it to get rice. The mother would then make the fire in the hearth and fetch water in a small pitcher from the well outside the village. She should not speak to anybody till she returned home with the water. This signifies her full devotion to the good spirit. She would then clean the rice already pounded by the father and place it above the fire with the water that she brought in a small pot, with the pretension of cooking the rice for the entire family members. After that, the father would offer a little folded leaf containing a few cooked rice and wine, which must be hung up in the house above the hearth for the whole day. Parents of the house would fast for the whole day till sunset.

Metymi `prophet or prophetess’:

It may be interesting to mention few prophecies, Khezha prophets or prophetesses had foretold about what would happen in the near future:

1. Thechy lhy mehnöba minö medö Hövami tshü tö eh de.

`In the near future, everyone will become the people of Höva.’

2. Thechy lhy mehnöba minö kenibo mele eh de.

`In the near future, people would climb the stem of gray sesame.’

3. Thechy lhy mehnöba minö tetro zhoh eh de.

`In the near future, people would fly in the sky.’

4. Thechy lhy mehnöba minö kenü merüfücü cece eh de.

`In the near future, people’s ear would become as big as winnower.’

5. Thechy lhy mehnöba minö soh kömi cece eh de, shyo emo thrüzokwe cece eh de.

`In the near future, men’s penis would become as big and as long as grinding stick and women’s vagina would become as big as the shell of bamboo shoot.’ (A large variety of bamboo, the shell of its shoot was used as temporary umbrella or sometimes used to cover the roof of temporary hut)

6. Thechy lhy mehnöba minö medö zhikhö-zhiha pfo tö eh de.

`In the near future, everyone would use only metal utensils’

(It was beyond possibility for any Khezha to believe that they would discard wooden utensils and replace them with utensils made of metal).

We may say that some of the prophecies have already been fulfilled, but we do not know about some others. The no.2 could mean scientific invention; while no.4 and 5 could mean moral of future generation.

1.14. LAW AND CUSTOM

1.14.1. KHEZHA GOVERNMENT:

Before Khezhas became British subjects, they had a system of government, which was federal in nature. In order to maintain the customs and traditions there were two types of Assemblies, namely, Khöprha Mèpö ‘Village Assembly’ and Kuzha Mèpö ‘Khezha Assembly’. The Village Assembly was an administrative organization formed by the representatives of the clans, while the representatives of all the Khezha villages formed Khezha Assembly. Laws and Customs of the Khezhas and all the judgments of the cases that involved Khezha customs and traditions were passed on the basis of it. There was no supreme chief to convene the Assembly. Thus, any Village Assembly could convene the session depending on the necessity.

There were three main functionaries in Khezha government, namely, religion, administration and judiciary. Mewö was the head in all the religious matter, while the Village Assembly was responsible for both administration as well as judiciary, yet they were interlinked in some way or other..

1.14.1.1. MEWö AND HIS DUTIES :

The office of mewö was hereditary in the clan, but not in the family. The mewö had no right to nominate any person as his successor, but he must be selected from among the clan by the Village Assembly and subsequently approved by the Khezha Assembly. In case, the Village Assembly did not find a suitable candidate from the mowö clan in the village, he should be appointed from another village of mewö clan. In such cases, the village Assembly of that village should seek the recommendation of Khezha Assembly for any person from any village. In case, the latter did not find any suitable man even from the other villages, the Village Assembly was allowed to nominate any person from any ordinary family in the village and seek the approval of the Khezha Assembly as well as the mewös of other villages. The new mewö would then become one of the mewö clans of Khezhas. There were certain land, house-sites and other valuable properties reserved for the mewö, and the successor would inherit all these properties, regardless of whether he was from other village or from the same village. It was prohibited for a woman to hold the post of mewö.

Mewö held the highest religious post and he performed all the religious ceremonies on behalf of the village and he might be regarded as the nominal head of the village administration. Besides his religious duties, he was the only person who could convene Village Assembly sessions and all the decisions made by either the Village Assembly or Khezha Assembly must be made known to him. He must have complete knowledge of the religious system, laws and customs of the Khezhas, and his interpretation was final in any disputes over the methods of rituals. He must not be physically impaired, having good moral qualities and must have a wife and children. He was also liable to be impeached by the Khezha Assembly if he violated the religious system in his ritual performance or other immoral activities.

His duties were also to count the days of the month by studying or observing the appearance of the face of the moon, to fix the days of kenyü, menyi, festivals, cultivation, sowing of seeds, harvesting and the day to open the granaries of new crops of the village. He had to announce all the activities to be observed for the days and other necessary information to the village early in the morning before anybody resumed the works.

1.14.1.2. VILLAGE ASSEMBLY AND ITS FUNCTION:

The Village Assembly members were appointed on merit basis, and not hereditary. Each clan in the village must select at least one man as their representative. The member should not be a woman. He must have complete knowledge of the laws and the customs of Khezha people and the village. There was no specific bar for the age of the member, but he must be a man of wisdom, good temper, bold to face any consequences, physically fit to go anywhere when the work was assigned to him. Since this was a free wage service, the member also must have self-sufficient properties for his family maintenance and hence must be from a well to do family. As it was not possible for the Khezha Assembly to meet often for minor cases, the full responsibility was left to the Village Assembly in settling down all the internal matters of the villages except those of the major cases, which the Village Assembly could not handle. Since the Village Assembly was responsible for both administration and judiciary of the village, these members may rightly be called as the administrators and judges of the village. The number of members normally consisted of about ten to twenty members depending on the number of clans in the village.

1.14.1.3. KHEZHA ASSEMBLY AND ITS FUNCTION:

There were no regular personnel to run the Khezha Government. Thus, Khezha Assembly was itself the Government of Khezhas. The Khezha Assembly was formed by the representatives of the Khezha villages consisting of the Mewö as the Chairman with normally two other members from the Village Assembly. However, the number of members were not fixed, hence could vary depending on the occasion. There were two types of Khezha Assembly sessions, namely, general session and emergency session. The general session was held once in seven (7) years. In this session, they would normally debate and review Khezha laws and customs and amend them whenever required. Religion being inseparably interlinked with the laws and customs of Khezhas, ritual performances and observations of religious laws usually became major point of discussion. This however was subjected to the prophesies of metymi, if any. For the Khezha Government, warfare could be considered as secondary to religion. Because, it was never known in the history of Khezha that the entire Khezha villages were involved together in waging war against another village or country. It was taboo, not only for a Khezha village waging war against another Khezha village, but also intentionally shedding the blood of a Khezha by another Khezha. Waging war against another non-Khezha village was purely the matter of the individual village. As discussed earlier, waging war was merely due to the lust of taking each other’s head to signify bravery. Taking the enemy’s head was never considered as a trophy, as it should be returned to the victim’s family in a very dignified manner by observing all the religious formalities. Therefore, in case, any of the head taker failed to observed complete religious formalities (that had to be done through the Mewö), and the Mewö of the village concerned had expressed his dissatisfaction, the Khezha Government, being the appointing authority of the Mewö had the right to interfere, if the Village Assembly deserted the Mewö. In such a case, any Mewö could convene the emergency session. Emergency session could be held any time depending on necessity and convenience, and could be convened by any Village Assembly. For instance, if a Mewö died, the emergency meeting had to be called to appoint his successor.

After the British took over the government system, the situation gradually changed. The younger generations slowly drifted away from their traditional system and belief. As time and the government system changed, the people of the Khezhas and their surroundings realized the importance of coexistence. In order to preserve the unity among the neighbors, all the 21 villages consisting of some villages of Chokri speaking community, three villages of Pomai community and the Khezhas met on 12^th March 1952 at Zhamai village of Pomai language community, killed a completely black male dog and each representative of the village ate a piece of its meat without cleaning the hair of the animal. They performed the traditional rites with hazhu (their traditional rice-beer), and made a vow not to shed each other’s blood and also to come to the rescue of one another in time of trouble and tribulation.

1.14.2. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT:

There was never existed incarceration system in Khezha tradition. The culprits were either banishment from the village or beaten by the kindred of the victims, a common practice of almost every Naga tribe. The punishments imposed on the culprits by their ancestors are briefly discussed below:

1.13.2.1. THEFT:

If anyone had stolen any property, he was bound to repay the owner seven (7) times either the cost of the stolen property or the stolen property itself. If recovered, the stolen property also would be returned to the owner. If the thief was so poor to repay the sevenfold damage, the kindred of the owner could beat him up and the relatives of the thief should not interfere. For the case of unknown thief, the village boys or the boys of the victim’s clan would gather and imprecate against the unknown thief as if spitting at the culprit known as echu. For it was believed that the imprecation brings on repeated bouts of illness to the thief.

1.13.2.2. BREAKING OF KEHNÜ:

If anyone violated the ritual observations of the village or the Khezha community, the culprit could be punished with either a fine paid to the village fund or exiled from the village depending on the offence affected upon. If it aggravated the consequences, eg., the occurrence of natural calamity due to the offence, banishment (a favorite punishment with the Nagas), for a longer or shorter duration of time would be inflicted.

1.13.2.3. MURDER:

Three degrees of homicide were recognized:

(a) Homicide by accident was punished by seven (7) years banishment from the village.

(b) In the case of homicide in a fight, the Village Assembly would award the punishment. The guilty could be punished with a seven-year exile and in addition, all his properties could also be confiscated and auctioned by the Village Assembly. But in this case, the first chance to purchase was given to the first heir of the culprit.

(c) The most heinous form of homicide was that by stealth or treachery, which could be in revenge, but not in open fight. For such crimes, not only the culprit, but also the whole kindred could be expelled from the village for seven (7) years. The properties of the kindred however, would be forfeited, but whichever belonged to the culprit would be confiscated and auctioned.

1.13.2.4. CODE OF DRESS AND HOUSE CONSTRUCTION:

If anyone wore a non-entitled dress, the village of that person must observe mehni, purify the guilt and pay some token of fine in the form of certain measure of paddy or, in case, depending on the judgment of the Village Assembly. In the same way, if any man had erected certain designated house that was not entitled to him, it must be dismantled forthwith. The Khezha Assembly could seize the matter in case the concerned Village Assembly failed to take appropriate action.

1.13.2.5. BIRTH OF ILLIGITIMATE CHILD:

It was kehnü ‘taboo’ for a woman to deliver tethronnö `bastard’ in the village. Therefore any woman who carried an illegitimate child must declare the name of the father before the delivery. If any man had any intimate relationship with this woman and she claimed him to be the father of the child, he was bound to accept it as his offspring and perform all the required rituals for the baby, regardless of whether the baby was his offspring or belonged to somebody else. He must take the woman to his house and perform all the necessary rituals as the real father of the baby at the time of birth. After all the necessary rituals were performed by him, the baby would no more be considered as illegitimate. The man and the woman must stay as husband and wife for a minimum period of three months after delivery. Honesty was like a natural flow in the life of a Khezha. It was never known in the Khezha history that a man denied having illicit relation with the woman who claimed him to be the father of the child.

If the man had legitimate wife, he must let her go away from his house till all the required procedures were accomplished. After which he could send the woman away and bring back his wife home. If the man did not have legitimate wife he was free to take the woman as his legitimate wife. If however, anyone of them persisted for divorce they could do so after three months of delivery of the baby. If the baby was male child, the mother must look after him for the minimum period of three years, and two years if it was female. Nevertheless, Khezha law did not say anything with respect to the period; hence it could slightly vary from village to village with regard to the fixation of the period. After the fixed period was over, it was up to their understanding whether the baby should be with the mother for some more time or be sent back to the father. The male child must go to the father at the end.

1.13.2.6. USE OF POISON:

If anyone intentionally poisoned someone and could not swear to deny the fact when accused, the culprit was exiled from the village for three years if the victim did not die. But if the victim died, the case was considered equivalent to murder category (c). If any person had been accused of poisoning someone, and he/she denied the fact, but if this happened three (3) times, then he/she would be exiled from the village for three (3) years in spite of the denial. However, it could also happen to someone due to personal or family enmity in order to cause ignominy to the accused family without valid evidence. Therefore, the Village Assembly would study the evidences of all the three events, and if one of them produced proof that the allegation was premeditated in order to bring ignominy to the charged family, all the three events of allegations would be treated as kebakebi `null’.

1.14.3. OATH:

Minor disputes were usually settled by the negotiations of elderly men in the clan or in the village. The decision of old men in the matters of customs was more or less final. However, in major cases, question of facts were usually decided by taking an oath. Khezhas regarded an oath as the greatest testimony and it was considered as sacred, for they believed that a false oath was held to entail death or at least misfortunes as a result of it. Either party usually accepted an oath, at any rate, if the lives of others were made responsible for its truth as well as the life of the oath taker. However, the number of lives were usually controlled by the judges and fixed according to the cases. In cases like accusation of poisoning a person, murder, boundary dispute involving large size of land, etc., the number of lives responsible for the truth of oath was generally larger. In all the oath takings, both the parties would quote the equal number of lives. In disputes between two villages, the whole lives of the villages were often made responsible for its truth. No one was usually willing to risk their lives by pledging them to the truth of a statement of a relative unless they were fairly well satisfied that the statement was true. In many cases, the judges or the relatives themselves frankly advised the party not to swear when their statement was proved manifestly false.

When the facts to be sworn were agreed upon by both the parties, the judges would administer the oath. One of the judges would utter the sentences of oath and the oath taker would imitate him by unfastening the knot of his hair of his head with a piece of earth on his right hand. But for a woman she would hold the earth in her left hand. The symbol being that the party that had falsely sworn would wither and turn into earth. Thus, the oath would conclude with the formula: “If I lied in what I now say, let me not survive till the end of the following year, let me not grow like others, but let me be ruined and be rotten into earth “. In serious cases like using poison to destroy someone or murder, the word “my offspring” was usually included. The administrators, however, always try to avoid this unless pressurized by either party or both the parties for fear that the misfortune earned by the parents by taking false oath might entail their innocent children. When inflictions occurred on the one sworn falsely or that when his conscience could not stand any further on the oath taken, the guilty sometimes appealed for forgiveness from the other party. In such a case, the appellant must bring along with him a cock and a handle of spade, which signifies complete submission and repentance. This has to be granted, for the fear that the same misfortune could reverberate to the other party if they rejected the request. (To obviate this, it was often agreed at the time of swearing that, a fine of so many rupees or so many baskets of paddy, or if it were land dispute, the land would be reverted to the other party or that some other such a withdrawal at any future date.) If the oath was proved manifestly false, the other persons whose lives had been placed in jeopardy would on their part claim compensation from the party swore falsely, and in serious case, to expel him from the clan.

1.14.4. PROPERTY AND INHERITANCE:

Landlord system was not known among the Khezhas. Every family had land of their own. Paddy field was the most valuable land and important form of property owned by individuals only. Next to the paddy field, forest was the most valuable property. In the house, they also used to preserve a large amount of paddy, which were assessed by counting the number of ebu ‘barn’. The less valuable properties were such as baskets, wooden barrels, dresses, dishes, etc. Jewelries like gold and silver were unknown to them.

Clan without division could keep wasteland. This was usually done for the reason that if all the land were apportioned among the heirs, the clan could become extinct. The parents for their children generally divided paddy fields before their death. All the brothers must share the properties of the father’s ancestors such as paddy fields and forestland equally, but the present house, which includes epa ‘grinding bench’, must go to the eldest brother. Daughters could not inherit any of the ancestor’s property of the father. In the same way, boys could not inherit mother’s property, but the whole property which she brought to her husband’s house, eg., paddy-field, land, etc., at the time of their marriage would be distributed to the daughters. However, all her ornaments and dresses must go to the youngest daughter. The parents to the children without sex distinction usually distributed any sort of properties, including paddy field, forestland that were purchased by them after their marriage. Houses were, however, considered as different from other properties. They were always considered as father’s property, whether built by the couple or by inheritance. Therefore the house usually would go to the eldest son if the couple had only one house and that the plot was not big enough to share among them. However, if they owned more than one house, or that the plot was big enough to construct more than one house with sufficient space for corridor and so on, male heirs could be asked to share. This was of course; the father had absolute authority to pronounce his decision.

If a woman died without a daughter, all the properties, which she brought to her husband at the time of marriage, would go back to the heirs of her father. Similarly, if a man died without a son, only his heirs would inherit all his ancestor’s properties. Both sons and daughters could inherit all the purchased properties, including land, house, jewelries and paddy field. The heirs of either side had no locus standi in any sort of the properties acquired by the parents. Hence, a man was free to leave as much properties as he pleased to be enjoyed during the lifetime of his daughter, but the property must go to the male heirs after her death.

If a man died, the wife of the deceased husband was allowed to stay in the house till her lifetime and looked after the children and their properties. But if the husband died without a son, the heirs of the husband had the right to take back the ancestor’s properties of her husband. Even though they had such a right, kindhearted brothers-in-law usually never took back their ancestor’s properties but normally allowed her to enjoy them as long as she was willing to stay in her deceased husband’s house. And even if her brothers-in-law had to take back their ancestor’s properties due to some reason, they had no right to claim the other properties acquired by the couple after their marriage.

However, if the wife intended to remarry (kiela ketshe’ new marriage'), she must leave the house of her deceased husband and stay with anyone of her relatives. For it was taboo for a widow to remarry when living in her husband’s house. She could not go away with their male child from her deceased husband’s house, but sometimes, female child was allowed. If the daughter followed the mother she would not get any share from her father’s property.

If any man did not have a male issue and adopted a boy of his clan, he was considered as his real offspring and the whole of his property would go to the adopted son. But there were cases that some wicked wives used to play role in adopting some child with the sole intention to divert husband’s properties away from the legal heirs. In order to get rid of such play, every village normally set a law for those who had to adopt male child other than from the same clan or heir. In such a case, the inheritance of an adopted son would normally be determined at the time of adoption with the heirs. If however, he had his own male offspring, yet adopted some other one(s) on humanitarian ground, the decision depends solely on the father to share the property among the children, including the adopted son(s).

In case of divorce, all the properties acquired by them after their marriage by either purchasing or by any other means would be shared equally, except the house. The house must go to the husband. As for the other properties, the wife would take back all those she brought to her husband at the time of marriage. If however, the divorce was due to the immoral act of the wife, she had no right to claim any share from their purchases except those she brought with her at the time of marriage.

1.14.5. MARRIAGE:

The early Khezha man was not permitted to take wife (kiemi) from own Khezha community. In the same way, a girl had to go out and marry to a man of other tribe. An extraordinarily beautiful girl with good physique from rich family had to marry a boy of her equal. Therefore, there were instances that an extraordinarily beautiful girl had to travel from village to village in search of a boy of her equal. Sometimes, she had to go even to a very far distant village till she got a boy of her equal. This was so, because it was a pride of every village to produce such an extraordinary woman and it was considered a humiliation to the village if she had to marry to a boy who was not of her equal.

Some scholars provide a very fascinating report from the Vedic literature about a Naga woman named “Ulupi” marrying a prince in the mainland of India before Brahmanas and Puranas period. This woman, apparently, was a Khezha woman by her name. In Khezha, the archaic name Elüpi was used in honorific form in addressing a young woman with English equivalent `Madam (young woman)’ as opposed to honorific masculine form Ethropfü `Sir or Lord (young man)’

Elüpi Lhitsoni-e `Madam Lhitsoni-e’

Ethropfü Wetelhi `Sir Wetelhi’.

There is a folk tale about a woman named “Tripo-e” who fell in love with a boy from her own village. As they could not separate from each other and at the same time it was tabooed for a Khezha man to marry a woman from own Khezha community, they resolved to elope to the deep forest where no one could find them. They lived in a cave and as they was no other means to get food they had to live by robbing the travelers and stealing day meals of workers in the field.

The tragedy for not being able to marry a loved one of the same community was faced not only by women but also by men. For in many instances they had to take a long trip from place to place in search of their life partners. There is also a legend about a man who had to undergo a challenging task in search of his life partner, yet it clicked at last. His name was Meronöcü. He was an orphan and poor, yet very witty and sportive. As he went on looking for a life partner, he saw an exceptionally beautiful girl. Meronöcü then resolved to win the heart of the girl. Accidentally, she happened to be the daughter of the king of that country. But this did not deter him. As he pursued courting the girl he was once successful to be able to approach her and converse with her in person. He told her that it was so boring to eat food from the same plate and drink wine in the same cup day after day. In his house he never used plate and cup twice. Even from his bed he could see the moon and stars so that he could meditate and compose poems before asleep. The girl was so impressed and agreed to marry him. After the marriage, when he brought the girl to his house, they ate food from leaf plate and then threw it away after used. Similarly, they drank hazhu `rice-beer’ from the leaf cup and threw it away after used. When they went to bed, they also could see the moon and the stars through the holes of the roof. His wife, though felt deceived, simply admired his wit. They king too, amazed for the same and hence took Meronöcü, his son-in-law, back to his kingdom and appointed his as one of his counsels.

Restriction of a Khezha man to take wife from own Khezha community was, perhaps, relaxed during B.C. period itself. However, we cannot be ascertained about it since no written record is available with us.

With regard to the matrimonial system among the Khezhas, they had to undergo several procedures to accomplish legal marriage, hence divorce was not such a simple expression for both man and woman, and for that matter every Naga tribe. The point of discussion in this book however confines particularly to the Khezhas. Except some differences in procedural matters, all the Naga tribes follow the system of monogamy and exogamy.

Polygamy was never practiced among them. It was believed to entail great misfortune if a man married a girl from his own kindred. The arms, legs or any other sense organs of their children could be impaired or luck might not favor him at the time of fighting against the enemies or even in hunting animals.

Boys and girls had freedom in choosing their own partner. Parents therefore resorted occasionally to a good deal of persuasion with regard to matrimonial alliances for their children. They never resorted to force, and cases of girls or boys married against their inclinations were unknown.

As their tradition goes, a man who intended to marry had to employ an old woman as a go-between with the girl’s parents and after all the formalities were accomplished, the boy and the girl would together take the first thozo `examination of fortune’ by strangling a fowl and watch the position of its legs when it dies. If the right leg crossed over the left leg, it was considered good sign.

If their thozo was good, then both of them must again note their dreams in the same night. Dreams of weeping, of excretion, or of the sexual act were bad. If the boy’s dream were not bad, the old woman would go and ask about the girl’s dreams. The marriage negotiation would only begin if the girl’s dream were also not bad. They would then fix the date for the marriage ceremony. To begin with, the girl would cook the food by herself in the next morning and bring a plate of food containing rice and meat to the boy’s parents and give them as a sign of her acceptance of the marriage. The boy would then buy a spear, and required number of animals such as cattle, pig, chicken, etc for the marriage feast and keep them in his house, while the girl would prepare hazhu `rice beer’ in readiness for the ceremony.

When everything was finalized, young men of the girl’s clan and girls of her age would go to the bridegroom’s house on the eve of the marriage feast and carry off, as though by force, the spear and the animals purchased by the boy, which they would kill and cook at the bride’s house. After everything was ready, the boys would carry the meat and the girls the hazhu that were prepared by the bride to the bridegroom’s house in procession. The counting of the number of jars of hazhu was very common and considered prestigious for a girl to prepare more number of jars of wine. Girls from rich family used to prepare even up to fifty or more jars of wine depending on the numbers of estimated guests to be invited to the feast. The bride must request friends of her age in a very formal way to join and carry the jar in the procession. If the number of girls from her clan were less than the number of jars, she would also request friends from other clan. The procession would be like this: A brother, if not a boy of her closest relative, would lead the procession, who was immediately followed by the bride, next to her were three girls from among her companions, then two boys with meat, and finally the other boys and girls carrying the rest of the meat and wine who sang in procession.

Inside the bridegroom’s house were only the bridegroom and his parents (no other person should be with them when the bride arrives). When the procession arrives, the bridegroom’s father would lay the blade of an axe without handle on the threshold of the house and the bride would step on it while entering the house. The father of the bridegroom then blessed the couple. The bridegroom would eat a piece of meat and wine brought by the party. The bride would eat a piece of liver and rice which she brought with her in a small gourd, and then offered the bridegroom a small quantity of wine in a small leaf cup. Then the parents of the bridegroom would open the feast by eating and drinking, which was followed by the rest of the party and the guests.

That night a small girl of the bridegroom’s clan who had not yet attained puberty would sleep with the new couple. This had a great significance, yet reason could be interpreted in various ways. One obvious reason is that, marriage was considered most holy and sexual intercourse even between the couple must be done in a very holistic manner. Privacy must be maintained in such a strict manner. Because the couple could only perform sexual intercourse only after the girl was in deep sleep. After sexual intercourse, the bridegroom would go to throkie ‘house where boys of the same age sleep together’ and sleep there. While entering inside the house of throkie he would make a war cry to signify that he had perform man’s duty in the most successful way.

The bride must not leave the house before sunrise. After sunrise, she would go and fetch water from a small pitch known as lemekhö and cook for the household. This day the house would observe kehnü to grace the holy union of the new couple. On the following day, the couple would go to one of the fields parted by the parent of the bridegroom for them with some amount of meal to be eaten after the work. They would do a little nominal work and eat the meal that they carried with them in the field. Thus, all the necessary formalities of the marriage ceremony were concluded. They new couple became husband and wife.

[1] It is said that the stone was originally a magical stone. If a basket of paddy were scorched on it in the sun, it gave two baskets of paddy when gathered. The owner of the stone had three sons. When he became old, he distributed his other properties to the two elder brothers and the magical stone to the youngest one. The elder brothers protested against it and thus picked up a querrel. Fearing the bloodshed, the mother brought a bundle of mustard plant straw that contains oil and some eggs, and set the stone on fire. As it burned, the stone burst off a crack like thunder and thus lost its magical power.

[2] Some minor weapons such as traps and snares may differ from village to village.

[3] There was certain tradition that no girl was permitted to keep long hair or wear any other ornaments except a white earring known as, mannakhödie till her virginity was broken. She had to undergo certain ritual known as lükiene with a boy of her choice who would also remove her white earring and replaced it with another one she brought from her house in the following morning after sexual intercourse.

There were instances however that some girls refused to have sexual intercourse with the boy and ultimately the boy refused to remove the earring from her ear. In such a case, she had to return home without removing her earring. This was an ignominy to the family of the girl. So parents normally compelled her to go back to the boy and would not permit her to return home till the earrings were removed.