Note 107 — Chapter I · TABOOED DAYS AT CRITICAL EPOCHS
Reading edition
Hodson, Nāga Tribes, pp. 167 sq. Among some of the Manipuri Naga the various genna are marked by rope-pulling contests, when the women and girls have a tug-of-war with the men. This is described as a means of taking omens for the future of the crops (ibid., p. 168). The Naga ceremonial is a serious business, but among the Meithei, the Hinduised neighbours of the Naga, the tug-of-war has dwindled into a mere pastime (Hodson, in Folklore, 1910, xxi, 300). On the magical significance of the games played by the Kayan of Borneo during their periods of seclusion, see above, p. 31 n.¹