SKETCHES OF ASSAM AND THE HILL TRIBES.
THE author of this volume is an officer in the Company's service, who in 1840 was filling the learned and business-like offices of Interpreter and Quartermaster to his regiment at Mynpooree in Upper India, when he was appointed second in command to the Assam Light Infantry : so to Assam he went. How long he remained there, and what he did, is not told : the volume consists of an account of his journey to his station in Assam, several personal incidents during his early residence there, a de- scription of the country and people, with a sketch of its history, and of the wild tribes by whom Assam is on all sides surrounded, and the As- samese are plundered, kidnapped, or murdered.
The volume is chiefly a contribution to our knowledge of the geogra- phy and barbarous tribes beyond the Ganges. Popular matter is indeed scattered through the pages, consisting of circumstances that occurred to the author himself, anecdotes of the savage tribes that partly occupy, partly surround Assam, together with some bits of history : but the value of the book consists in the special information it furnishes about a coun- try of which we hear a good deal and know little ; and in this point of view it is useful.
Notwithstanding the boasts of the venders and the advertisements in shops, there is little likelihood that Assam tea will realize the promises of projectors or the hopes of the public, at least in this generation. Tea can doubtless be grown in Assam, as it can in other places ; but, we fear, not in sufficient quantity to interfere with the Chinese supply, still less to compete with is in price. According to our author' folly and im- providence have been the characteristics of the Assam Tea Company.
"At one time it was feared the scheme would be abandoned. The number of managers and assistants appointed by the Assam Company, to carry on their affairs and superintend their tea-gardens on large salaries, was quite unnecessary: one or two experienced European superintendents to direct the Native establish- ment would have answered every purpose. A vast number of Coolies (or la- bourers) were induced to proceed to Upper Assam on high wages to cultivate the gardens; but bad arrangements having been made to supply them with proper wholesome food, many were seized with sickness. On their arrival at the tea- plantations, in the midst of high and dense tree jungle, numbers absconded, and others met an untimely end. The rice served out to the Coolies from the Assam Tea Company's store-rooms was so bad as not to be fit to be given to elephants, "crunch less to human beings. The loss of these labourers, who had been conveyed to Upper Assam at a great expense, deprived the company of the means of cul- tivating so great an extent of country as would otherwise have been insured; for the scanty population of Upper Ass-am offered no means of replacing the de- ficiency of hands. Another importation of labourers seems desirable, to facili- tate and accomplish an undertaking formed under most auspicious circumstances. Nor was the improvidence of the company in-respect to labourers the only in- stance of their mismanagement. Although the company must have known that they had no real use or necessity for a steamer, a huge vessel was nevertheless purchased, and frequently sent up and down the Burrampocter river from Cal- cutta; carrying little else than a few thousand rupees for the payment of their establishment in Upper Assam, which might have been transmitted through Na- tive bankers, and have saved the company a most lavish and unprofitable ex- penditure of capital."
If we judge by the descriptions of the tea districts in China, but a limited portion of Assam is adapted to the cultivation of the plant; and only parts of that, until order, security, and increasing population, shall have cleared the country from the dense woods and jungle by which it is overrun : any attempt at clearing and settling per saltum is out of the question. For many years to come, probably until the country shall have been colonized by a better race, Assam must be useless except for military occupation as an outpost to our frontier in this direction ; both as a means of overawing the wild tribes, and preventing the country from being occupied by any hostile power that might trouble us. Weak- minded and inergetic, the Assamese appear to have existed to furnish slaves to their bolder neighbours, and to supply them with the food the braves were too lazy to raise for themselves, either in the more regular form of black mail, or the less sophisticated way of plunder. Under such a system cultivation was not of the most improved character, and popu- lation was scant and diminishing. The greater part of the country, in- deed, is in a state of nature, with vegetation through which it is requisite to cut a way by the axe ; the lower grounds of Assam are flooded during the rainy season; • and wild animals of all kinds are rife, even where a party of troops have formed a station.
PLEASANT QUARTERS.
On one occasion, about eight o'clock at night, sitting by a snug fireside, my at- tention was arrested by the approach of an unwelcome visiter making his way in at the door. Taking up a candle to ascertain who or what was forcing ingress to my dwelling, I beheld a python, or boa-constrictor, about six feet long, steadily advancing towards me. In my defenceless position, it may be imagined that safety depended on immediate flight; and the monster thus speedily gained entire possession of my habitation. It was, however, for a few minutes only that he was permitted to remain the undisturbed occupant of the abode; for my servants quickly despatched the intruder with a few blows inflicted with long poles. An apothecary, who had long been attached to the Assam Light Infantry, assured me that pythons, or boa-constrictors, were very numerous in our vicinity, and of an immense size, some not being less than fifteen or eighteen feet in leogth. I bad evidence of the truth of the statement; a skin fifteen feet king being subse- quently brought me by the Natives. I caused it to be tinned and sent to Eng- land. Small serpents were often met with. On one occasion the apothecary brought me two boa-constrictors of abed four feet long, which he had found on a table curled up amongst some bottles in the same room where his children were sleeping. In all probability the lives of the infants were saved by the musquito curtains preventing access to the bed. Boa-constrictors are exceedingly fond of rats, and on this occasion they had evidently been in search of their prey. As my cottage had not the usual white cloth ceiling suspended, insects, snakes, and vermin, frequently descended from the roof into the rooms; but by keeping the house free• ot baggage and well swept, contact with them was avoided. The reader will suppose an Assam mat-but to be a dreary kind of residence: but I can assure him the logwood lire on a hearth one foot high, in the centre of the room, with a small window cut high in the wall for the escape of the smoke, M by no means devoid of cheerfulness.
In his sketches of the wild tribes round Assam, as well as in his his- torical episodes, the author falls into the prevalent but puzzling Anglo- Indian habit of speaking of obscure or to English readers totally un- known persons, as if they were as familiar to the reader as they are to the writer ; while the close resemblance the names bear to one another— like the Johnson, Smithson, &c. of our own ancestors—increases the con- fusion. Nay, our soldier-author goes beyond this, for he plunges in medias res about chiefs beyond the Ganges as if they were Ctesars or Hannibals. In other respects there is an interest attached to his accounts, from the picture of man in a state of nature, the anecdotes of barbarous revenge and honour with which they are interspersed ; and the historical or political suggestions they give rise to. Philologists show that languages, however numerous they may seem and however widely they may apparently differ, are really resolvable into a few primitive tongues, as the roots again of those are few in number, andY derived, from objects common to man and nature everywhere. So the numerous hill tribes who envelop Assam—devoid of arts, averse to industry, living part of the year by extortion and robbery, and the other part as they can, some without clothing, and all very scantily provided—contain in themselves the germs of most governments, :except perhaps the pure despotism. The feudal system, mixed up with clannish opinions and practices, is strongly traced in most ; there is also a faint germ of representation and delegation, as well as of classical democracy. The Nagas, a numerous people broken up into clans, are so backward in mind as to be incapable of lying ; not, we fear, from any moral sense, but they are too simple to imagine any- thing beyond the real, or even to get to the abstract. They "have no names for the days of the week, and know not their own ages. Summer and winter are the only divisions of the /ear they recognize, distinguish- ing them as dry and wet seasons of six months each. Time is counted by the moon, or by the number of crops tlky can recollect reaping." Yet they are Democrats of the first water; free as the ancient Germano in their forests, or the "free and enlightened" citizens of America, except that the Presidentship is hereditary.
"The form of the Naga government is Democratical: each clan seems to be ruled by a President and two subordinates or Deputies, who form the executive. The President is called Khonbao and the Deputies Sundekae and Kbonsae: the one prime minister, and the latter a chief over twenty houses. The chief magis- trate or arbitratorAhe Khonbao decides all disputes of a civil or criminal nature, and it is optional with him either to direct or enforce his orders with his own sword : but in all this he is merely the organ or agent of the people; for the decisions are the results of the consultations of the whole Raj, or populace, who discuss all matters of importance in the open Moorung, or hall of justice, to be found in every Naga village. The Khonbao, Sundekae, and Khonsae, on these occasions, summon all the community to attend and assist with their counsel in disposing of any affairs of moment: such as a war to be undertaken against a foe, or in furtherance of revenge; or the punishment of crimes committed by any of the members of the tribe in opposition to their established polity. "The dignity of Khonbao is hereditary; the eldest son of the incumbent inva- riably succeeding to the title and authority. No junior brother can assume the rank, under any pretensions founded on greater ability, personal appearance, or reputation of valour. In the event of the Klionbao leaving no progeny, his wife succeeds to his title and authority; and the deputy Khonbao, Sundekae, and Khonsae, in council enforce her commands, and report everything to her connected with the welfare of the community.
"No hospitality is shown to a stranger visiting the Naga country, unless he visits the Khonbao in the first instance: he is unable, even under the greatest distress, to obtain shelter or provision elsewhere. On the arrival of an embassy, it is conducted to the residence of the Khonbao, who gives audience immediately t and returns a reply by the messengers on his own responsibility, if the object of the visit is of no great importance. But, on the other hand, should the embassy be for the purpose of obtaining redress of wrongs committed by the clan of the Khon- bao, the embassy is retained and entertained hospitably till the Sundekae, Khon- sae, and principal elders of the people can be assembled in the Moorung; when the grievance is stated and inquiries made, each member stating openly and can- didly his opinion on the matter at issue. The Kbonbao propounds what is in his opinion expedient and best for the public good; but if there appears any irregu- larity, the people express their disapprobation to the Kkonbao, and he is con- strained to abide by the will of the community, to give orders to the embassy, and allow its departure to the place whence it came. In this manner all affairs and discussions are regulated amongst the Nagas. Any attempt to travel through their country unaccompanied by a person acquainted with the roads, villages, and Naga language, would be the height of folly; as the traveller would not be sup- plied with water, food, or lire neither would any shelter be afforded him, ancitus fife would be in imminent danger."
Previous page
