Keikung. The members of these clans belong respectively to: rules, priests, heros and poets, peasants and businessmen. Ngyoen, the priestly clan amongst them do not eat meat even today. Unlike the other Nagas, the girls of the Phom community do not cut their hair, rather they keep long hair. While the Phoms marry the widows of their elder brothers, a practice found with most of the Nagas and also with a very few Indo-Aryan Communities, the marriage with a cross-cousin is allowed only between persons related in the third generation. Prohibition of marriages between cross cousins related in the first and second generation is still in vogue amongst the Indo-Aryan communities. Under the Dravidain influence, the Maharashtrians (an Indo-Aryan community) particularly those living in areas contiguous to Karnataka practice cross cousin marriages between persons related in the first generation. Such marriages are considered preferred ones amongst the Dravidians. Hence the possibility of the Changes, the Phoms and the Yimchungeüs belonging to a lost group of Aryans cannot altogether be ruled out.

(ii) The Lothas have three clans based on hierarchy. These clans as per the hierarchy are: Limhachan, Limhadhüng, and Ezomotsü. They have two sets of Kinship terms to refer to their mother and other relatives. These terms are dependent upon the clan of the father, for instance, a child born to a man from the Limhachan clan will address his mother as: apü, if she belongs to any clan other than that of Limhachan, while a child born to a man from the Ezomotsü will address his mother as: oyo. Similar differential sets of kinship terms are available for the other kins also. apü and the other Kinship terms indicate that the ego’s mother when compared with his father belongs to a lower clan, the reverse being the case with oyo and the other related terms. One wonders whether these kinship terms are a relic of a hypergamous clan/marriage practice which existed amongst them. The Lothas practice both inter-clan and intra-clan marriages. A near parallel of hypergamous marriage is found amongst the Patidars of Gunjarat and the Kulins of Bengal.

(iii)The Angamis differ from the other Nagas not only in physical features but also in the extreme extent to which the village democracy is practiced as to acknowledge no supreme authority. This contrasts with the powerful heriditary village chiefs found amongst the Semas and the Mao’s and the Angs (rulers) of the Konyaks. The Angamis also differ from all other Nagas in the art of terrace cultivation. Till now no other Naga community except the Semas in Chizemi village has taken to terrace cultivation.1 A section of the Lothas and Zemis were reported to have attempted terrace cultivation in 1920’s but gave up.

The most important features of the Sema villages were the total absence of any artificial defense of their villages and the morungs `dormitories’ (Davis : 1911). The defenses of the Sema villages were practically negligible when compared to the elaborate precautions of the Angami villages. At the maximum, the defense of a Sema village consisted of a double fence with a ditch in between crossed by a single plank. Both the ditch and the outer side of the ditches were panjied. Hutton (1968:34) claims that `many Sema villages relied or rely for security from hostile raids solely on the vigilance of their watchmen and their reputation for valour’. With regard to the Morungs `dormitories’, Hutton (1968-37) claims that it was practically non-existent among the Semas. It was, however occasionally built in a miniature form when a new village is made. The house of the village chief served all purposes of a morung both as a centre for performing gannas `rituals’ and as a bachelor’s sleeping place. A probable reason why the Semas didn’t feel the need of strong defenses and morung is the arrangements of their village, i.e. approach to a Sema village is always over land consisting largely of open jhum where the enemy movements would be clearly visible and in part, of very thick low jungles in which the movements of an enemy would be most difficult.

The other areas where the Semas differ from the Angamis and the other Nagas is in the size and in the arrangement of their villages. The Sema village is usually built on the summit of a hill or on the shoulders of a spur. Ordinarily a Sema village is much smaller than the villages of the other Nagas, i.e. a village consisting of hundred houses is considered quite a big one for