1. Habitat. The Lushei chiefs now rule over the country between the Kurnaphuli river and its main tributary, the Tuilianpui on the west, and the Tyao and Koladyne river on the east, while their southern boundary is roughly a line drawn east and west through the junction of the Mat and Koladyne rivers and their most northerly villages are found on the borders of the Silchar district. Within this area, roughly 7,500 square miles, there are only a few villages ruled over by chiefs of other clans, and outside it there are but few true Lushei villages, though I am told that there are villages of people very closely connected with the Lusheis, on the southern borders of Sylhet, in Tipperah and in the North Cachar Hills, and there are a few in the Chittagong Hill tracts.

2. Appearance and physical characteristics. All the Lushai Kuki clans resemble each other very closely in appearance and the Mongolian type of countenance prevails. One meets, however, many exceptions, which may be due to the foreign blood introduced by the many captives taken from the plains and from neighbouring tribes; but these are not worth considering, and the description of the Kuki written by Lt. Stewart close on 80 years ago cannot be improved on. “The Kukis are a short, sturdy race of men with a goodly development of muscle. Their legs are, generally speaking, short in comparison with the length of their bodies, and their arms long. The face is nearly as broad as it is long and is generally round or square, the cheek bones high, broad and prominent, eyes small and almond-shaped, the nose short and flat, with wide nostrils. The women appear more squat than the men even, but are strong and lusty.” In Lushai clans both sexes are as a rule rather slighter made than among the Thado and cognate clans, whom Lt. Stewart was describing. Adopting the scale given in the handbook of the Anthropological Institute, the colour of the skin varies between dark yellow-brown, dark olive, copper-coloured and yellow olive. Beards and whiskers are almost unknown, and a Lushai, even when able to grow a moustache, which is not often, pulls out all the hairs except those at the corners of his mouth. The few persons with hairy faces may, I think, be safely said to be of impure blood.

The hair is worn, by both sexes, in a knot over the nape of the neck, and carefully parted in the middle. The young folk of about the marrying age devote much care to their hair, dressing it daily with much pigs’ fat. Later in life they grow careless, and widows allow their hair to hang as it chooses. Children’s hair is left to grow as it likes till it is long enough to tie up. Curly hair or hair with a pronounced wave in it is uncommon, and is much objected to.

The women are prolific, five to seven children being about the average, but the mortality among the children is so great that few parents can boast of more than two or three grown up children.

Both men and women are good walkers and hill-climbers, which is only natural, but for a race which lives exclusively on the hilltops the number of good swimmers is very large. Most men are not afraid of the water, and manage rafts very skilfully, making long journeys on them in the rains.

Abortion is not infrequently resorted to when a widow who is living in her late husband’s house, and therefore, as described later, expected to remain chaste, finds herself enceinte. Suicide is also rather common, poison being the usual means chosen. The cause is generally some painful and incurable disease, but very old persons with no one to support them sometimes prefer the unknown future to the miserable present.

3. History. The existing Lushei Chiefs all claim descent from a certain Thang-ura, who is sometimes said to have sprung from the union of a Burman with a Paihte woman, but, according to the Paihtes, the Lusheis are descended from Boklua, an illegitimate son of the Paihte Chief Ngehguka. The Thados say that some hunters tracking a serao noticed the foot-marks of a child following those of the animal, and on surrounding the doe serao they found it suckling a child, who became the great Chief Thang-ura, or, as they call him, “Thangul.” From Thang-ura the pedigree of all the living chiefs is fairly accurately established. The Lusheis, in common with the Thados and other Kuki tribes, attach great importance to their genealogies; and pedigrees, given at an interval of many years, and by persons living far apart, have been found to agree in a wonderful manner. From comparison of these genealogies and from careful enquiries lasting over many years, I estimate that Thang-ura must have lived early in the eighteenth century. His first village is said to have been at Tlangkua, north of Falam. It is probable that he personally ruled over only a small area. From him sprang six lines of Thang-ur chiefs:—(1) Rokum, (2) Zadeng, (3) Thangluah, (4) Pallian, (5) Rivung, and (6) Sailo. To the north the country was occupied by the Sukte, Paihte, and Thado clans. These appear to have been firmly established under regular chiefs; but to the west the hills appear to have been inhabited by small communities formed largely of blood relations and probably each at feud with its neighbours. Therefore when want of good jhuming land and the aggressions of the eastern clans made it necessary for the Thang-ur to move, they naturally went westward. The Rokum, the eldest branch, are said to have passed through the hills now occupied by the Lushais, and some of their descendants are said to be found on the Tipperah-Sylhet border. The Zadeng followed the Rokum, and, passing through Champhai, moved westwards and about 1830 ruled some 1,000 houses divided into four villages situated near the banks of the Tlong or Dallesari river, round the Darlung peak. In alliance with Sailo chiefs of Lalul’s family, they attacked and defeated successively the Hualgno (a Lushei family settled between Tyao and Manipur rivers) and the Pallian, who were their allies against the Hualgno. Subsequently the Zadeng quarrelled with Mangpura, then the most powerful Sailo chief, who, dying about that time, bequeathed the feud to his relatives, one of whom, Vutaia, prosecuted it with such vigour that the Zadeng, in spite of an alliance with the Manipur Rajah—who, however, proved but a broken reed—had to flee southwards, and their last independent village, numbering only 100 houses, broke up on the death of the chief, which occurred at Chengpui, near Lungleh, about 1857. The Zadeng chiefs are reputed to have been cruel and arbitrary rulers, whose defeat was not regretted even by their own followers. Their descendants have retained these qualities, and, in spite of much assistance, have failed to regain their position in the world.

The Thangluah and Rivung took a more southerly course. The latter penetrated into what is now the Chittagong Hill tracts, and a chief named Vanhnuai-Thanga had a very large village on the Longteroi hill, between the Chengri and Kassalong rivers. He died about 1850, and shortly after his death the village was destroyed by Vutaia. The remnant of the Rivungs fled to Hill Tipperah, where Liantlura, a great-grandson of Vanhnuai-Thanga, had a village up till a few years ago, and there is one small hamlet under a Rivung chief in the Aijal sub-division of the Lushai Hills.

The Thangluah penetrated as far as Demagri and Barkhul, where Rothangpuia (Ruttonpoia) became known to us, first as a foe, and then as a faithful ally. Rothangpuia’s son Lalchheva, fretting at our control, moved his village across our boundary, in spite of a warning that Government could on no account protect him if he did so. Very shortly after this move he was attacked by Hausata, a Chin chief, and his village totally destroyed, many persons being killed and more taken captive. All the mithan (tame bison) were driven off and the chief escaped with little more than the one cloth he was wearing, and now the once prosperous Thangluah clan is represented by only a few poverty-stricken hamlets round Demagri.

The Pallian followed the same route as the Zadeng. The best known chiefs of this clan are Sibuta (Sheeboot) and Lalsuktla (Lalchokla). Sibuta is said in Mackenzie’s “Eastern Frontier” to have thrown off the Tipperah yoke with 25,000 houses. He died close to Aijal, and his memorial stone is at the first stage on the Aijal-Lungleh road. It is extremely doubtful whether he ever was really subject to Tipperah, though it is certain that all these Lushai clans had dealings with the Tipperah Rajahs and feared them greatly. Among the tales in Chapter V. will be found one which exemplifies this.

Lalsuktla (Lal chokla), captured by Captain Blackwood in 1841, was a great-grandson of Sibuta’s. Purbura is said to have been a very powerful Pallian chief and at one time to have received tribute from almost all his contemporary Thangur chiefs. He had a large village, said to contain 3,000 houses, on the Dungtlang, whence he moved as far westwards as Pukzing, where his village was destroyed by a combined force of Zadeng, Sailo, and Chuckmahs. This attack took place somewhere about 1830. Purbura rebuilt his village, but died soon after, and his descendants were attacked frequently by the chiefs of the Rolura branch of the Sailo family, and now only two small hamlets, close to Aijal, remain to remind us of this once powerful clan.

The Sailo.—These chiefs are descended from Sailova, a great-grandson of Thang-ura’s. They came into prominence last, but have crushed all their rivals, and have developed such a talent for governing that they hold undisputed sway over representatives of all sorts of clans, over nearly the whole of the area now known as the Lushai Hills.

This great family has often come in contact with the British Government, but from the fact that our dealings with them have generally been through illiterate interpreters, they appear in our records under various names. The Howlongs, who caused much anxiety on the Chittagong frontier from 1860 to 1890, Lalul’s descendants, whose doings fill the records of Silchar for nearly a century, Vonolel, Savunga, and Sangvunga, against whom the two columns of the Lushai Expedition of 1871–72 were directed—all these were Sailos.

As above remarked, it seems most probable that the country into which the various Thangur chiefs moved, under pressure from the Chins, was almost entirely occupied by small communities having no power of cohesion. The greater part of these were absorbed, and now form the majority of the subjects of the Thangur chiefs; but some fled north and west into Manipur, Silchar, Sylhet and Tipperah, where they are known as Kukis and where their appearance caused much trouble, as, from the very nature of the cause of their migration, much ill-feeling existed between them and the triumphant Lushais. In Stewart’s notes on Northern Cachar, it is stated that the Old Kukis made their appearance in Cachar about the end of the eighteenth century. These Old Kukis include the Biate (Beteh) and Hrangchul (Rhangkol) and other cognate clans who are now known to us as Khawtlang. They claim the hills round Champhai as their place of origin, and the sites are still known by their names. We have seen that the Lusheis claim to have sprung from a village south-east of Champhai, and that the Zadeng passed through Champhai on their westward move, which ended so disastrously for them. The advance of such tribes would be slow, and would be largely regulated by the rate at which they exhausted the cultivable land near their village sites; therefore the appearance of the Biate and Hrangchul in Cachar at the beginning of the nineteenth or end of the eighteenth century fits in well with the date I had assigned for Thang-ura, the first Lushei chief, before I had read Lieutenant Stewart’s book. These Khawtlang clans to this day have little power of cohesion, and they naturally gave way at once before the well-organised Lushais, and fled north and north-west into Cachar and Manipur, passing through the territory of the Thado clans and suffering considerably at their hands. When the Thangur had firmly established themselves, and the capable Sailo chiefs had come to the front, they felt equal to fighting the Thado clans, which were as highly organised as themselves. The Sailo chiefs triumphed, and hence the eruption of the New Kukis, alias Thados, and cognate clans, into Silchar about 1848.

In Colonel Lewin’s “The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers Therein,” page 109, is given an account of the “Cucis or inhabitants of the Tipperah mountains,” written by J. Rennel, Chief Engineer of Bengal in 1800. With very slight alterations, this account is applicable to the Lushais of to-day, and I have no doubt that the Cucis therein described were the Rivung, the advance-guard of the great Lushai invasion.

On the Chittagong side, we find, as early as 1777, records of frontier disturbances ascribed to “Kookies, men who live far in the interior parts of the hills, who have not the use of firearms, and whose bodies go unclothed” (Lewin’s “The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers Therein,” page 21). These Kukis were allies of the Chuckmahs, and we have seen that about fifty years later the Chuckmahs joined with the Zadeng and the Sailos in an attack on Purbura.

The various branches of the Sailo family were frequently at war, the cause almost invariably being a dispute as to land. About 1856 a war, known as “The War of the North and the South,” broke out and lasted about three years. The Northern combatants were the descendants of Lallula, their opponents being Cherra’s family. The bone of contention was the Piler hill, and this quarrel was on the point of breaking out again in 1892, when Mr. McCabe and I, appearing on the scene from Aijal and Lungleh respectively, “frightened both the heroes so they quite forgot their quarrel.” The war ended in a victory for the North, who surprised Konglung, a village on the top of a very precipitous rock, and captured the young chief and his mother, who later were ransomed for many necklaces.

In 1874 the Southern Lushais fell out with the Thlantlang (Klangklang) chiefs. Vandula, head of the Lushais, had raided Vaki, a village on the Arracan border, and brought away as part of the loot a brass bowl and a big earthenware vase, which the Thlantlang chief claimed as being part of the promised price of his daughter, who had recently been married to the son of the Vaki chief. As Vandula refused to give up the articles, the Thlantlangs attacked a Lushai piquet on the Koladyne, killing some men. To revenge this insult, the Lushais attacked Bunkhua, with disastrous results, as is described in Chapter III, Para. 5, and had to make an ignominious peace.

Later the Northern chiefs quarrelled among themselves, and the war of the East and West broke out and lasted several years. The cause is said to have been a girl called Tuali, for whose affections Liankhama and Khalkhama were rivals. It is unnecessary to go into the history of our dealings with the Lushais, which have ended in the whole of the Hills being annexed, and a stop put to all such wars, but when we occupied Lungleh in 1889 we found the Fanai clan coming into prominence, and there is little doubt that, but for our intervention, that clan would shortly have attempted to eject the Southern Lushai chiefs.

4. Affinities. The Lushais are more or less closely allied to all the tribes now living in their vicinity, but some who show this most strongly, such as the Chiru, Kom, Aimol, are now settled in the Manipur State, while the intervening country is occupied by clans belonging to the Thado, Paihte, and Khawtlang families, which, though no doubt of the same stock, are more distantly connected. It seems certain that the former clans lived near the Lusheis when the Thangur commenced their victorious career, and it may well be that it was fear of absorption by their more powerful neighbour that drove these clans northwards, while the Lusheis took a westerly direction.

The connection between the Lusheis and their eastern neighbours is apparent both in their language and in their customs, but the eastern tribes, known to us generally as Chins, are of finer physique and, owing to their having permanent villages, the differences between clans have become more marked than among the semi-nomadic Lushais and Kukis. The feuds between different clans, which are always found where permanent villages exist, tend to widen the breach between communities and to accentuate every accidental variation of custom, so that the common origin is soon lost sight of. Nevertheless there is no doubt that the Kukis, Chins, and Lushais are all of the same race.

Less apparent but still quite traceable is the relationship between the Lushais and the Kabuis and Manipuris, though the latter nowadays try in every way to disown all connection with their poor relations.

5. Dress. The men’s dress could not well be simpler, consisting as it does of a single cloth about 7 feet long and 5 wide. It is worn as follows:—One corner is grasped in the left hand, and the cloth is passed over the left shoulder, behind the back, under the right arm across the chest and the end thrown over the left shoulder. Although it would appear probable that clothing so loosely worn would be continually falling off, yet, as a matter of fact, accidents of that sort seldom occur. In cold weather, one or more cloths are worn, one over the other, and also a white coat, reaching well down the thigh but only fastened at the throat. These coats are ornamented on the sleeves with bands of red and white of various patterns. When at work, in hot weather, the Lushai wraps his cloth round his waist, letting the ends hang down in front, and should he find the sun warm and if he is wearing two cloths, he will wear one as a puggri. Puggris are sometimes worn when out in the sun for long, and some affect rather a quaint style, twisting the cloth round the head so as to make an end stand up straight over each ear.

All these garments are of cotton, grown locally and manufactured by the women of the household. The cloths in general use are white, but every man likes to have two or three blue cloths ornamented with stripes of various colours.

The Lushais have a very strong objection to getting their heads wet, and therefore in the rain wear hats made of strips of bamboo or cane plaited and lined with smoked leaves. The original hats were almost flat and circular, but nowadays these have been discarded in favour of very clever imitations of helmets and solar topis. In the southern portion of the district the people use, as a protection from the wet, a large shallow basket-work tray, shaped like an oyster shell, and made waterproof by being lined with smoked leaves; the narrow end rests on the wearer’s head, while the broad end reaches down well below the waist, so that, while bending down weeding in the jhum, the head and body are kept dry. This form of waterproof is not much used in the northern portion of the Lushai Hills, but is common among the Chiru and other allied clans in Manipur. As the Lushai has no pockets, he carries, wherever he goes, a haversack made of some pretty coloured cotton cloth slung over his shoulder by a strap of the same material. In this he carries his flint and steel and his tobacco, in neatly made boxes carved out of solid pieces of wood and fitted with lids of the same material, or of leather moulded into shape by being stretched over a block. His pipe is generally in his mouth; it consists of a bowl made out of a particularly hard kind of bamboo which is only found in the Chin hills—whence the Lushais claim to have sprung—with a long stem made of a reed-like variety of the same plant. When not in his mouth, this also reposes in his haversack along with his “tuibur,” a small gourd to hold the water which has been impregnated with nicotine in the pipe of his wife or sweetheart. A little of this evil-smelling concoction he takes into his mouth from time to time and, having kept it there a few minutes, he spits it out and declares that it has a stimulating effect. In his haversack you will also find his knife, the wooden sheath tied to one of the shoulder straps so that the handle is always convenient to his hand. The blade is about four or five inches long and nearly an inch wide at the handle, but comes to a sharp point; the edge is straight and ground like a chisel.

The dress of the chiefs is the same as that of the common people, except on occasions of ceremony, when they wear dark blue cloths, with red lines of a particular pattern, and plumes, made of the tail feathers of the king-crow, in their hair knots. These plumes are very much prized and are kept most carefully in bamboo tubes with leather caps. The cloth referred to above can also be worn by anyone who has given certain feasts, as described later on.

Dress in War-time.—When the Lushais were fighting us in 1892 I was much struck by the whiteness of their garments. The men who ran away from the stockades as we rushed them were always dressed in nice clean coats and cloths, and crowds of similarly attired warriors used to assemble every morning just out of range and challenge us to come and fight. I was told that it was considered the correct thing to come properly dressed when there was fighting on hand, but a raiding party I once came across was dressed far more suitably. A single cloth wrapped tightly round the waist, a haversack protected by a bear or tiger skin guard over one shoulder, and a fighting dao or dah over the other, and a gun in his hand completed each warrior’s equipment. It will be seen from the above description that the Lushais are not fond of dress, and this is another point in which all Kuki clans differ from those of Naga stock.

Special Attire.—A man who has earned the title of “Thangchhuah” (v. Chap. IV, 9) is allowed to wear a cloth of a certain pattern and those who have killed men in war have special head-dresses, known as “chhawndawl” and “arke-ziak.”

The Women’s Dress.—The women are no more addicted to fine clothes than their men-folk. All women wear the same costume; a dark-blue cotton cloth, just long enough to go round the wearer’s waist with a slight over-lap, and held up by a girdle of brass wire or string, serves as a petticoat which only reaches to the knee, the only other garments being a short white jacket and a cloth which is worn in the same manner as the men. On gala days the only addition to the costume is a picturesque head-dress worn by girls while dancing. This consists of a chaplet made of brass and coloured cane, into which are inserted porcupine quills, and to the upper ends of these are fixed the green wing-feathers of the common parrot, tipped with tufts of red wool. At the back is affixed a horizontal bar from which hang strings of glistening wing covers of green beetles. The women smoke as much as the men and have a special form of pipe, a miniature hookah about 9 inches high with a clay bowl, the water container being of bamboo much ornamented with patterns roughly scratched. The water when thoroughly impregnated is transferred to the “tuibur” gourd of some male relative or admirer. Children of both sexes begin smoking very young. I have seen a woman take her pipe from her mouth and put it into that of the baby on her back.

6. Tattooing. This is not much practised. The only patterns employed are circles on the forearm and breast, which are said to be mementoes of love affairs in happy bachelor days, and rude representations of a metna’s head, which is said to have no particular meaning.

7. Ornaments worn by men. The Lushai wears a variety of articles in his hair knot. The commonest is a brass two-pronged pin with a head shaped like a G. The prongs are drawn out to sharp points and vary in length from three to eight or nine inches. These very long pins are a recent innovation, and their use seems to be restricted to the young dandies of the hamlets round Aijal. Skewers of ivory, bone, and metal about six or eight inches long are also worn. Of the two former there are two patterns, one four-sided, about a quarter of an inch thick at two thirds of its length, tapering to a point at each end, the other being flat, pointed at one end and about half an inch broad at the other. Both are ornamented with engraved circles and lines. The metal skewers are quite plain and more for use in scratching the head than for ornament; a piece of the rib of a broken umbrella is now often used. The hair comb is also an ornamental article; it consists of a piece of ivory or wood about three inches long, half an inch thick and an inch or so wide, into which are inserted, very close together, teeth of strips of bamboo about two inches long. If the back is of wood it is generally crescent-shaped and lacquered red and inlaid.

With reference to the comb I may quote from Colonel McCulloch’s descriptions of the Thados in his “Account of the Valley of Manipur”:—“Their attention to genealogy, the distinction of clans, and the respect paid to seniors, I have already noticed. Out of this may have sprung the only exclusiveness shown by the Khonjai (Thado), namely, in the point of who would be entitled to use his comb and whose comb he might use. This, though amongst them a very important matter, I cannot find to have any religious importance attached to it, but there is an indication of the superior rank in respect of descent or by connection, or of estimation in which an individual is held or holds himself to be found to whom he would refuse his comb, or amongst whom his comb is common.” My Lushai informant says that the use of the comb is restricted, as headaches are communicated by the comb. He also adds, “A higher clan man is contaminated by a lower clan man using his comb. Thus a Renthlei may not use a Sailo’s hair comb, and a Chawngthu may not use that of a Pallian.”

Earrings.—Most men have their ears pierced, and wear either small wooden studs, with flat heads about half an inch in diameter, and coloured red, or cornelians suspended by a piece of string. The stones are barrel-shaped and unpolished, the surface being pitted with minute holes and circular marks. These are valued very highly, and are passed on from father to son, or given as a daughter’s dowry. Some of them have names connecting them with some story of bygone days. These naturally fetch higher prices. I know of stones valued at Rs. 400/-.

Necklaces.—Both sexes are fond of necklaces: those of amber are most valued, and any that have histories attached to them fetch prices which to us seem absurd. I remember a chief, who was offered Rs. 60/- for his necklace, replying that if the Sahib wanted the necklace he would give it him, but that he would not sell it for Rs. 1000/- as it had been the property of his ancestors. The old necklaces are made of very dark amber, beautifully clear, and the beads are sometimes two to three inches long and over an inch in diameter. There is some doubt as to where these beads came from, but it is probable that they came through the Chin hills from Burmah. Besides amber, agate, cornelian, and various sorts of bead necklaces are worn, or, failing all these, white shirt buttons are acceptable.

A tiger’s tooth is often hung round the neck as an ornament and is also thought to have magical properties. The young dandies are fond of hanging round their necks tufts of white goat’s hair bound together with red thread; these are now worn as ornaments, but undoubtedly the custom arose from the idea that cures are effected by hanging round the affected part a piece of the skin or feathers of the animal or bird sacrificed to the demon, who is thought to be responsible for the illness.

Bracelets are not much worn and are generally plain brass rings.

Ornaments Worn by Women.—With the exception of their earrings, the Lushai women affect the same ornaments as the men. The earrings, however, are quite distinct, and, in order to be able to wear them, much preparation is necessary. When quite a child the girl has her ears pierced, and small wooden plugs are inserted. These are replaced by larger ones, which in turn give place to still larger ones of clay, the size of which is gradually increased till the real earring, which is an ivory disc some inch or inch and a half in diameter, with a hole in its centre, can be inserted. Widows remove their earrings, and slit the lobes of their ears when they abandon all thought of re-marrying.

8. Weapons. The Lushais have been in possession of firearms for the last sixty or seventy years. These weapons are flint-locks bearing the names of many European makers; many are Tower muskets, and guns bearing the marks of the French Customs Department are not at all rare. These guns came into the country in the first instance chiefly through Burmah, though no doubt some came through Chittagong, and much money must have been made, for the demand was large. When the weapons first began to appear, the Lushais and other western tribes used to obtain them from the tribes on the Burmah border, giving slaves in exchange, a strong male slave being equivalent to two guns. The other weapons in use are spears and dahs. The former are inferior weapons with iron laurel-leaf shaped blades about a foot or fifteen inches long, very insecurely attached to the shaft, which is of hard wood, often a piece of sago palm; at the other end of the shaft is a long iron spike which is stuck into the ground when the user halts. A special spear is used for sacrificial purposes, the blade of which is much longer and diamond-shaped. The spike at the other end is also much elongated, so that sometimes the wooden shaft is only six or seven inches long. The dah is a more serviceable weapon, being copied, as its name “kawlnam” denotes, from the Burmese weapon, but the blade is shorter, the handle is of wood lacquered black and red, and ornamented with brass bands and a brass knob at the end. In former days oblong shields of bison-hide eighteen inches wide and about two feet long, adorned at the two upper corners with tassels of goat’s hair dyed red, were carried. The upper half of the shield was sometimes covered with discs of brass, while from a string crossing the centre of the shield hung a row of brass cones about two inches long, from each of which depended a tassel of red goat’s hair, reaching to the base of the shield. Bows and arrows have entirely gone out of use, but were formerly used, especially in the chase, when the arrows were poisoned. The bows were small and made of bamboo, the string being of bark. The arrows were furnished with barbed iron points, and were carried in a bamboo quiver with a leather cap to it. Among weapons we must class the bamboo spikes with which a retreating foe or villagers expecting an attack rendered the ground almost impassable to a bare-footed enemy. These spikes were of two kinds, one used round the village or block house, and the other, carried in a neat little cane-work quiver, and stuck in the path when returning from a raid to delay pursuit. The former were simple bamboo spikes of various lengths, while the latter were carefully smoothed bamboo spikes about six inches long, and no thicker than a knitting needle; each sort was nicked so that it might break off after entering the flesh. To a bare-footed foe these spikes form a very serious obstacle, and even our troops have suffered from them, the spikes being sometimes long enough to reach to a man’s knee.