Language:

Sumi (also known by its exonym ‘Sema’) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Nagaland, North-east India. It is one of the major languages of the state, with an estimated 242,000 speakers living primarily in Zunheboto district and the major cities of Kohima and Dimapur. David Bradley writes that places Sumi (referred to as Sema) among the ‘Southern Naga’ languages, which include Angami (also known as Tenyidie) and Ao, in contrast to the ‘Northern Naga’ languages such as Konyak and Nocte. Robbins Burling further offers a more conservative classification, placing Sumi (Simi) in an ‘Angami-Pochuri’ group, containing Angami, Chakhesang (Chokri and Kheza) and Mao. Four main dialects of Sumi have been identified: the Western dialect, the Eastern dialect, the Chizolimi dialect, and the Central dialect. The Central dialect is the standard dialect used in Sumi's published works. The earliest published work on Sumi can be found in The Linguistic Survey of India, edited by Sir George Grierson. In 1916, John Hutton wrote the first sketch grammar of the language, ‘Rudimentary grammar of the Sema Naga language, with vocabulary, a revised version of which is included in his published anthropological description: The Sema Nagas. The Sumi Language has a Latin-based Orthography, which is attributed to the missionary Rev. W. F. Dowd and Inashe Sema, who published a primer entitled Mlali in 1909.

Social Organisation and Village Structure:

The Semas can only be said to have a " tribal " organisation insofar as the villages which they inhabit are organised in a pattern generally prevalent throughout the tribe, for the tribe itself is not an organised community at all. Nor is the unit of Sema society the exogamous clan (ayeh), as among the Angamis. Clan feeling exists, as does tribal feeling, but it has no organs. The basis of Sema society is the village (apfu, agana), or part of a village (asah), which a chief controls. With the advent of the British, the American Baptists concurrently spread the gospel of Christ in almost every Sumi Village. The Inception of the new administration and a new belief led to the radical changes in the institution. That is not to say that the clan is never important in the Sema polity. In Lazemi (" Lozema "), where there are no chiefs and almost certainly an Angami element in the population, the clans (or rather septs, for the village is almost entirely of the Asimi clan) seem to be as crucial as in the Angami villages. G.Kanto Chophy writes in his book that the Sumi society is patrilineal in that descent is reckoned through the male, and it is patriarchal in the sense that official power resides primarily with men. The female line is of no account, and relationship through the female, though recognised as existing, is barely recognised and nothing more. A Sema may not marry his wife's mother, nothing more. A Sema may not marry his wife's mother, but can marry practically any female relation of his own mother on her father 's side.

The word for " clan," by the way, is ay eh or ay a, and the same word serves for "custom," an indication, perhaps, of an original differentiation between clans according to the customs they followed. According to J.H. Hutton, accounts regarding the clans' origins are very conflicting. The Chishilimi have a Rabelaisian story that all the Semas were initially divided into two divisions, the Chishilimi and the Ashonumi, which comprised all the other clans, including the Cheshalimi, and that everyone claimed to be Chishilimi. Some of the food taboos may no doubt suggest the possibility of some form of totemism having obtained among the Semas, but except for the Wotzami, there is not a single clan which genuinely traces its descent from an animal or plant, and none has anything like a definite totem. The abstinence by almost all Semas from eating or touching the hornbill called awutsa conceivably points again in the same direction, but seems to have a different origin. If there is any animal which one would expect the Sema to regard as a totem should be considered, it would be the tiger (angshu), which he credits with an origin senior to his own, one mother having had three children, a spirit, a tiger, and a man whose respective descendants still people the world. The Semas often identify themselves with a clan belonging to a neighbouring tribe.

G Kanto Chophy writes that previously, most Sumi villages had the following vital offices: akukau (the chief), awou (the chief priest), asheshuu (the village announcer) and chochomi (elders assisting the chief). Except for the office of the akukau, which was hereditary, the other official roles were primarily based on selection; the office of awou was contingent on a person’s knowledge of community rites and rituals; the office of asheshuu required an agile person bereft of any infraction of the village customary laws, lest he fall short of his role; and the office of chochomi was based on a person’s knowledge about village affairs, although the chiefs had the power to appoint the chochomi as they desired. With the coming of Christianity, the office of awou and asheshuu dwindled, changing the traditional hierarchical order. Today, the roles of awou and asheshuu have disappeared entirely from Sumi society. The Sumi chiefs are no longer as powerful as they were in the past. The chiefs no longer hold sway over the village as in the traditional set-up. This is mainly due to the introduction of state politics and bureaucratic system, which affects decision-making and usurps political power in the context of the larger Sumi society. Moreover, the dwindling authority of the Sumi chiefs is aggravated by the economic condition, especially if a chief’s main occupation is farming—a less lucrative and humble occupation signifying illiteracy and lowly status in present-day Sumi society. In the past, blood feuds were carried out with a sense of duty and honour, especially among the unilineal descent groups; thus, the Sumi folklore is replete with themes of men avenging their

kin members. The position of the chief is exclusively based on the kinship principle, and the logic ‘what was good for my father is good for me and will be suitable for my sons’ operates. In today’s context, clan politics and identity-consciousness are kept alive by forming voluntary clan unions and associations. The Sumi residing in Nagaland and outside the state acquire membership in their respective clan associations. These associations seek to consolidate clan identity and aspirations, document their oral histories, beliefs, and practices, trace their lineage to some ancestors, give historical reasons and findings, and unite the clan members by the logic of blood ties. In a way, this process helps to keep the tradition alive, but it has also aggravated the contentious issues of identity and ethnicity in the Sumi society. In general, the village council has emerged as the foremost decision-making body, overriding the body of elders in the traditional set-up. The village council comprises democratically elected offices of chairman and secretary, which function under the purview of the village customary law. Still, it is an extension of the policy implementation of the Indian state and is linked to the district administration.

Hutton speaks of another critical factor in village life, that of the “gangs” called aluzhi. In the case of the unmarried, these are composed of both sexes and are well self-contained. They nominate their own commander (athou), who decides what fields are to be cultivated each day by his gang, and who is usually the biggest bully in it. They consist of persons of about the same age, and though each gang can eject a member at will, usually a person enters a gang as soon as he is old enough to be left behind in the village to his own devices when his mother goes to work, and belongs to it or some other gang for the rest of his life. He ceases, however, to work with it in the fields as soon as, but only for as long as, he has sons old enough to go to work with their gangs; only when he is so old that he cannot go to work in the fields does he practically cease to be a member of his gang, for if he has no son or if his son dies he goes back to gang work as a member of his old gang. The same rule applies to women, who, however, leave their original gangs after getting married and go to gangs composed of married women and widows only. Apart from this provision, which entails the virtual separation of the sexes after marriage, the composition of a gang depends almost entirely on age, contemporary children, and their association with groups of playfellows, which is their ordinary basis. Where clan feeling runs high, the gangs may be mainly composed of members of one clan, but ordinarily they are relatively indiscriminate in this respect. They are also democratic, and the chief's son, like everyone else, must do his work and obey the leader of his gang. The latter maintains discipline by the ejection of the contumacious, but quarrels frequently break up the

gang entirely, when the component members join other gangs. In the independent villages where the children cannot be taken to the fields the respective gangs spend much of their time in fighting with one another, and where factions in the village coincide with the composition of gangs, this fighting is undoubtedly very rough, indeed it is probably that in any case, and a most suitable education for the Naga warrior. An almost essential feature of the aluzhi system is the singing which accompanies it. The gangs work in a long line, singing as they work, and each gang has, or at any rate ought to have, three leaders of song who know the whole art of singing and can teach and lead the rest. There are songs particularly appropriate to each phase of cultivation. However, that does not preclude their being sung at other times as well, nor does it preclude the singing of songs that have nothing to do with the work in hand and with agriculture at all. The singing is possibly regarded as frightening away malignant spirits as well as an aid to labour, and the same idea may have given rise to the practice of " Ho-ho-ing " when on the march and the shouts and yells emitted as a village is approached or left.

Religion:

In the context of the Naga tribes, the colonial writers first used the term ‘animism’ to identify their religion. The census operation of 1901 defined tribes as those who practised animism. In a similar parlance, J.H. Hutton, following E.B. Tylor, circumspectly labelled Sumi religion as animism. The Sumi pantheon is comprised of various classes of spirits and supernatural beings. Hutton classified the ‘spirits’ into three types: Alhou, Kungumi and Tughami. However, he notes that Tughami plays an active role in people's daily lives. Suppose the magico-religious beliefs and practices of the Sumi are strictly adhered to. In that case, it is only Tughami, as Hutton classified, which occupies the larger chunk of Sumi traditional religious beliefs. The Sumi had a concept of an almighty god, Alhou, who created the heavens (atsutsu) and the earth (ayeghi); however, he is an aloof being and rarely interferes in human affairs. If beliefs are to be shaped according to his characteristics, it will assume a distinct deistic position. In modern parlance, he is a blind watchmaker who takes no interest or responsibility in frail human affairs. The second type of spirits, which can be classified as Kungumi (heavenly beings), is found only in the myths and legends. Going by the Anglophone definition of spirits, the dichotomy of body and spirit, the Kungumi do not qualify as one because the Sumi narrate stories of love and marriage between human beings and Kungumi and bearing offspring. In the legends, they are understood as heavenly beings, having physical bodies with human emotions and desires.

Thus, it would be more appropriate to subsume Kungumi under the classification of sprites or fairies dwelling in the sky and having occasional interaction with earthly beings, therefore playing no role in the traditional religious beliefs and practices.

Aghau or Tughami, the third type of spirits in the Sumi pantheon, pervades traditional Sumi religious beliefs and practices. These spirits significantly keep alive the efficacy of religion in community life. Also, these spirits make belief in a higher power possible, which can actively intervene on behalf of humans, alter the physical environment, and change the fate of humans. The Sumi believe these spirits are real and vital to daily social life. These spirits are capricious, require constant worship and propitiation, and are considered amoral. The concept of Tughami within the Sumi Christian world view over the years was given a diabolic interpretation: it attained a sinister characteristic—the scourge of god’s creation, responsible for the woes of mankind and enticing men to sin against God. It acquired the notoriety of the concept of evil spirits in the Christian tradition. Unlike in the Christian beliefs Aghau or Tughami, as is recently understood in the contemporary Sumi context, was not a notorious figure in the traditional world view.

G Kanto Chophy further writes that, in the Sumi context, the Durkheimian notion of social solidarity evincing out of the collective act of worship is secondary to the belief in a higher power. For when the Sumi pray to the Christian god or propitiate the spirits, as in the traditional religion, for instance, during a critical and decisive agricultural ritual, they precisely recall whom they are praying to, that is, a higher power that can act beyond the limits of human conditions. The religious beliefs and practices of the Sumi bind the community because of their location in the public space, although certain aspects of religion function in the private domain. What is observed among the Sumi is that not every act of worship binds the people into a moral community; the hierarchy based on gender, spiritual haves and have-nots, and other nuances of the power dynamics determine the classes of adherents; and rituals in this context act as a vehicle of ideology to constrain and marginalise certain sections of the community.

Genna is a term synonymous with the ritual complex of Naga tribes. Derived from the Angami word, kenna, implying forbidden, Hutton defined the term as ‘acts of worship for the incidents of various magico-religious rites’ found among the Naga tribes. The Sumi ritual complex is a composite of ritual actions and the reckoning of space and time. It involves a break from daily work, abstinence from basic human needs like food and sex, and assuming a distinctive state of mind. The Sumi equivalent word for forbidden or taboo is chini; it entails consequences if

an individual or community infringes its principles. Achineh is the word for acts of worship; in a narrow sense, it refers to a complex of magico-religious rites. The Sumi use the word chineh-chini or tughapu-chineh to refer to a ritual complex, where tughapu refers to the spirits. Another word, pini, is identified in the Sumi traditional ritual complex; Hutton differentiated the prohibition about a section of the community and the whole community in his analysis of the Angami ritual. However, among the Sumi, the word pini, equivalent to the Angami word penna, refers to both the domestic and community ritual complex. The concept does not merely imply prohibitions but also involves a state of mind where the individual or the community involved in the ritual breaks from the monotonous cycle of daily existence. Pini also involves observances and meeting the conditions of the commonly held beliefs about the supernatural agents toward which the entire ritual is directed.

The traditional religion gradually disappeared; however, its faint presence is still felt in the new religion. Inspite of Christian beliefs, the people still believe that the souls linger behind and they can be brought back by praying to God. In the bygone days, the evil spirits offered fowls and eggs to release the soul. The offerings made to the church strike some resemblance with animistic propitiation. Sacrificing of animals, offering fowls, eggs, and rice beer to propitiate evil spirits were common in the traditional culture of bygone days. Today, the firstborn cattle, fowl, egg, vegetables, pulses, and grains are brought to the church as offerings to the Supreme God. However, the motive is different; the former is of propitiation, and the latter is of thanksgiving. Weddings have become more elaborate, with large feasts, many guests, and standard decorations. Churches have grown rich with all the members pumping in one-tenth of what they earn.

As one way of preserving their cultural identity, the Sumi people celebrate festivals like Tuluni, Ahuna, etc. After all, these festivals invoke the blessings of God over their crops and thanksgiving for the abundant harvest, respectively. Festivals like Tuluni not only mark the end of the sowing season and the invoking of blessings upon the crops but also involve reconciliation and the sharing of the feast. Should there be a grudge, it is forgiven and forgotten. Should there be enmity, friendship is extended by sharing the feast. In the present day, Tuluni may not have the same significance as in the past, but it can retain the reconciliation potential to promote harmony in society.

Rituals:

Among the Sumis, most of the annual rituals are related to their agricultural (jhum) cycle. The agricultural yearly cycle begins with wuniqhi (wuni-to go; aqhi-month). This phase falls right after the harvest, that is, the culmination of the final phase of the previous jhum cycle. The most significant agricultural ritual of this phase is performed by the atiquu (first sower). The atiquu, who conducts the first annual agricultural ritual on behalf of the community, takes various seeds and sows them to a specific spot. He propitiates the spirits for the success of the agricultural year and protection from pests and natural calamities. Wuni pine (apine-phase) takes place before clearing the new jhum field. During this phase, the rich people feast on the community to display wealth and status. This agricultural phase refers to removing the debris after the jhum fields have been burnt. During this phase, an important rite, awu muta, that is, releasing an unblemished cockerel as an omen in the jungle, is performed. This ritual is significantly associated with the health and wealth of the village community. It is performed once a year to forecast the fate of the village. For this, a young boy deemed undefiled (muqha-miqhi) is assigned to catch the cockerel. The search for the boy worthy of the act happens before the ritual. The boy catches the cockerel, which is kept for a night at the chief priest’s (awou) home. Ghixu (aghi-paddy; xu-to sow) phase corresponds to May in the present-day jhum cycle. This is one of the busiest phases of the agricultural year. No significant ritual is performed during this phase, but after hard days of sowing activity, people kill animals and feast with close family members. After sowing is complete, people rest for a couple of days, after which the yearly communal clearing of the field path is initiated. There is another essential ritual phase called Khushoniqhi. In Ighanumi, the ritual involved during this phase of the agricultural year is significantly associated with terrace cultivation, a borrowed cultural trait from the Angami. The respondents attest that terrace cultivation is not indigenous to the village; this farming technique has been adopted particularly from the Chokri-speaking Chakhesang group, earlier known as the Eastern Angami. Here, the ritual is performed to earmark the planting of rice seedlings in the terrace fields. Before the seedling planting opens in the village, a wealthy man first goes to his terrace field and plants a few rice seedlings, leaving some unplanted. This is to symbolize the abundance of leftover seedlings after the planting. The person goes home and abstains from eating rice, but a young swine is usually slaughtered and eaten with rice beer. On this day, the entire village is forbidden to work in the fields. The main activity of this agricultural phase is the final weeding in the fields. By this time, the paddy is

tall and no longer susceptible to inundation by the weeds; nevertheless, the time is mid-monsoon, so there is an increase of pests in the fields. This phase corresponds to Tuluni, an important Sumi festival. Toward the end of this phase, the community observes the Tuluni ritual. Tuluni, is a composite of ritual and feasting. Tuluni was significantly and fastidiously observed by Sumi in other regions, which hints toward the variance in the social context and environmental conditions. After Tuluni, people go to the field, but on that day, they return home before sunset. Once everyone has returned, the chief priest (awou) hangs a smelly creeper on the village gate (aliwo), after which people are forbidden to step out of the village. This is also the agricultural phase when maise is harvested in the jhum fields.

Marriage was a costly affair for the Sumi Men, and the bride wealth of the Sumi girls was proverbially high. The bride's wealth depends on several factors. First, the Family Status: the higher the family status, the higher the bride price. Second, a girl's working ability determined her bride's wealth; if she were known for her hard-working habits, thrifty nature, amiable behaviour, which count for a good wife, then her price would also be high, irrespective of her physical beauty. Marriage generally took place between families of equal status. The Levirate and sororate forms of marriage were also common. Exogamy as well as endogamy were present. Some clans do not marry within their clan, yet others marry within their clan, e.g., Assumi, Zhimomi, Yepthomi, etc. Polygyny disappeared after the advent of Christianity because the latter preached monogamy - one woman for one man. Even after the advent of Christianity, some cases of a man having two wives have been reported. It happens when the first wife fails to give birth to an heir, and a second wife is taken for a male heir. In most cases, the first wife also enjoys the privileges of a wife, and she stays in a separate residence. Nevertheless, these kinds of cases are infrequent; most of the childless couples opt for adoption rather than a second wife. Monogamy is the most common form of marriage among the Sumi. Many authors believed that excessively high bride prices led to monogamy, but in the case of the Sumi, it was due to preaching Christian principles.

Avitoli G. Zhimo writes that in the olden days, before the advent of Christianity, there was no marriage ceremony, only marriage processions with pomp and show. In the present context, the marriage is solemnised according to Christian solemnisation. The marriage ceremony is celebrated at the residence or church of the bride. Well-wishers, friends, relatives, and church staff are invited to the wedding ceremony on the appointed day. The success of the wedding is attributed to the number of guests and the number of gifts received at the reception. A special traditional hut with ethnic designs is the stage for the wedding day. The bride's father gives the bride away. In case of a deceased father, the brother of the bride's father takes the privilege in giving away the bride's hand. The wedding minister performs the marriage rites. The couple is made to take vows of being there for each other, in times of sickness or health, happiness or sorrow, for better or worse and for richer or poorer. After the pronouncement of blessings, the minister and the church pray for the couple. From then onwards they are 'Husband and Wife". This marriage ceremony also includes reading the Holy Bible, wedding hymns, invocation prayer, exchange of rings, cake cutting, etc. The wedding dresses have drastically changed. The White wedding gown has replaced the traditional wedding attire with many strings of beads and ornaments. Everyone, whether the royal or not-so-rich families, opt for the white wedding. Of course, in a few cases, semi-traditional dresses have been used on the wedding day. Therefore, in the marriage scenario, the mode of ceremony and the dresses have changed. The process of certain relatives playing the role of father (apu), mother (aza), uncle (angu), brother (apeu), aunt (ani), etc, for the newly married couple continues despite the white wedding ceremonies. These relatives are given gifts at the end of the wedding ceremony. The gifts could be in cash or kind or both. The role of apu is played by the bride's father's brother, aza, the bride's mother's sister, angu, the bride's mother's brother, apew, the bride's brother, and ani, the bride's father's sister. The role of these relatives is to investigate the newlywed couple's welfare and instruct and counsel them whenever necessary.

Economic Livelihood:

In the era of globalisation, dissolving traditional cultural boundaries and social spaces, the Sumi society still retains a conspicuous chunk of the traditional way of life despite the ‘awareness of the global interdependence.’ Thus, the community may encounter the global forces influencing many aspects of their life. Nevertheless, substantial social and economic transactions are carried out in the immediate context of the community, clan groups, religious institutions, voluntary associations, and the overall daily existence. In the economic aspect, the Sumi, like any other Naga tribe, are becoming a part of the broader global market and economy. Invariably, in urban or rural areas, the consumption and services of various commodities, from ordinary salt to satellite television, depend on the market economy. Nevertheless, in the villages, the families still produce their food, and not much change is observed in the mode of production as people still follow the age-old traditional system of agriculture-based livelihood. The Sumi are enmeshed with the regional and global markets, but have retained parts of their traditional mode of economy and livelihood. Many individuals are employed in the government in both the central and state services, and the Sumi, like other Naga tribes, have witnessed an incremental rise of the middle class over the years. Government jobs remain a lucrative avenue, as young people are increasingly getting educated to be employed in the public sector, seeking a safe job and economic security. G Kanto Chophy writes that the primary source of livelihood is agriculture since most people still live in the villages. Jhum cultivation, or slash-and-burn/shifting cultivation/swidden, is the mainstay of the Sumi economy and livelihood. Settled or wet cultivation, an advanced technique of paddy growing, was not indigenous to the Sumi society; they learnt it from the neighbouring tribes. The southern Sumi villages in contact with the Angami were the first to adopt settled or terrace cultivation. In some villages, the American Baptist missionaries taught the technique of settled cultivation. However, jhum cultivation continued along with settled cultivation, and this trend is conspicuous till today. The viability of jhum cultivation was due to multiple cropping, where varieties of legumes and vegetables could be grown along with paddy. A large population still practises the slash-and-burn method, barring those settled in the plains of Dimapur, who practice settled cultivation. This shift in the mode of agriculture in the plain areas has opened a new challenge and discourse on ethnic relations and conflicts, as vast arable lands to be cultivated require an increased labour force. The Muslim migrants (locally known as miyahs) from Bangladesh and the neighbouring state of Assam provide a significant chunk of the labour force. A quasi-feudal economic and social relation has been established between the Sumi landowners and the Muslim migrants. In return for the labour, a share of the harvest is given to the labourers, and economic security and protection are also provided. Meanwhile, the tenants are levied an annual tax based on the settled households. Jhum cultivation occupies a vital place in the Sumi society. In recent years, owing to rapid socio-economic changes, the inordinate dependence on jhum cultivation is relatively decreasing; however, most of the population who live in rural areas are still dependent on jhum cultivation for livelihood, so much so that shirking their agricultural duty can incur starvation for the family. The practice of jhum cultivation is fast changing in the Sumi society, but it is still a viable economic livelihood for most of the population. The Sumi in urban and semi-urban areas might have adopted other forms of livelihood, the majority being absorbed in the public sector, with the elitist few pursuing art, fashion, music, and literature, while some have joined the rising entrepreneurial class.

Dress and Ornaments:

According to the account written by JH Hutton, the clothes worn by the western and central Semas are usually of Lhota patterns. Weaving is only practised in a few villages. Even here, the patterns worn seem to be of Lhota origin, as the prevailing Sema cloth, which may be seen in all the Sema villages from Lazemi to Litsammi, is the black cloth with three red stripes down each side used by the Ndreng Lhotas and called by them sinyeku. Of course, the Lhotas may have adopted this pattern from the Semas, but the reverse is more likely because weaving seems a newly acquired art in the Sema country. The Semas akhome calls this black and red cloth. It is embroidered by warriors of great renown only, with cowries forming circles and sometimes the outline of the human figure, indicating the warlike achievements of the wearer. Thus embroidered, the cloth is called asilkeda-pi. earer. Thus embroidered, the cloth is called asilkeda-pi. The cloth called mi'i-pi is black or dark blue, with a white stripe down the centre, like the Lhota pangrop. To this, black stripe patterns are added by head-takers (as in the Lhota rokessil), when the cloth is called ata-kivi-pi. The cloth called sitam by the Lhotas is also used — dark blue and white stripes, and called dubopi, as well as a dark blue cloth with a light blue stripe called abopi and resembling the Lhota pangchang or shipang. Warriors of renown who have also completed all their social gennas may wear a blue cloth of mixed thread called chini-pi (" genna cloth "), but as very few women know how to weave this cloth, it is rarely seen. In Lazemi, Mishilimi, and other Dayang Valley villages, a very handsome cloth of broad black and white stripes called nisupi is worn. The eastern Semas commonly use Sangtam (Tukomi) and Yachungr (Yachumi) cloths. On ceremonial occasions, the dress described above is supplemented by several striking and picturesque additions.

The dress of the Sema woman consists principally of a short petticoat, which does not reach to the knees, wrapped round the waist and kept in place by a bead girdle. There are more than half a dozen patterns, differing in colour— the tsoga-mini, which has a white band at the top, the kati-'ni, black and white stripes, puraso-mini, white with black edges, tuko-li-mini with a blue band at the top, choe-li-mini (Lhota girl's petticoat), with a blue band in the middle, the lahupichika, which is black and red and worn only by chiefs' daughters, etc. The wives of chiefs and others who have performed a whole series of social gennas sometimes adorn their petticoats with cowries sewn on here and there in patterns. Over the top of the petticoat is worn a string of cowries as a belt, and under it a broad girdle of yellow beads extending well below the hips. In their ears, the unmarried girls wear a cowrie or often a white bead, and little tufts of red hair are worn by married and unmarried women in some villages, but married women usually wear no ear ornament. Necklaces are made of many strings of beads in which cornelians take the central position. These necklaces are like those worn by Chekrama Angami men, but the cornelians are oval instead of oblong. On their arms, the Sema women wear heavy pewter-Uke armlets above the elbow, sometimes two on each arm, and as many plain brass bangles and bracelets on the wrist and forearms as the wearer can obtain and can conveniently wear.

Food and Drinks:

J.H Hutton writes that, the food of the Semas consists primarily of a monotonous Food, diet either of rice or, in those villages which are in such high and exposed situations that rice will not grow, of Job's tears — an uncompromising cereal which Nagas unused to it are unable to digest and strongly resent being asked to eat. Occasionally, as a last resort, millet is eaten as a substitute for either of these, but it is usually used only for brewing. It is most unappetising boiled, and boiling is the only method known to the Naga for cooking rice or its substitutes. With the rice, however, something is always eaten, meat, fish, vegetables, or, if nothing else at all is to be had, chillies alone. The Sema, like other Nagas, is a great eater of chillies, and can and does fill his mouth with chillies and nothing else and eat them as though they were chocolates. The Semas are, however, great meat-eaters, and except in cases of unusual poverty or scarcity, eat a quantity of some meat or fish at every meal, not very much, perhaps, but enough to make deprivation of it a severe hardship. Like the Angami, he takes three meals daily, eating rice from one dish, and meat and vegetables from another, while a dish is usually shared between two or more persons. Boiling is the only method of cooking practised except for toasting, which is sometimes resorted to. As with the Angami, no part of an animal's body is wasted. The skin is eaten after the hair has been skinned. So are the intestines. While not exactly discriminating regarding what flesh he eats, the Sema is less omnivorous than the Angami or the Chang. The tiger, leopard, and larger cats. The tiger and leopard are regarded as closely akin to man, and to eat them would be almost cannibalism. Of reptiles, snakes, lizards, and toads are not eaten, nor is the nichoiti, which is described as a small frog with an enormous stomach, so that this limits edible reptiles in the Sema country to the tortoises and various remaining species of frog. As among other Nagas, the staple drink, almost the only drink, of Semas is rice-beer in one form or another, for tea is rarely used, while no one dreams of drinking water except in the last resort. Tea, when used, is made by boiling the leaves in water. Nagas do not cultivate the shrub, though varieties are found here and there. Before drinking, a Sema always pours a few drops on the ground or touches a drop to his forehead for the benefit of aghau or teghami. Usually, he blows upon the surface of his drink to blow away the spirits, a custom also recorded of the Russians in the 16th century by one of the Hakluyt voyagers.

And so, we step back from the precipice of the Sumi world, a landscape etched as much by the spirits of the ancestors and the intricate codes of clan as by the encroaching shadows and dazzling lights of the modern age. The air, once thick only with the smoke of sacrificial fires and the chants invoking Alhou or Timilhou, now carries the harmonies of Christian hymns, a spiritual counterpoint played out in the village square and the quiet of the home. Where the formidable ahng once held sway, his authority woven into the fabric of kinship and ritual obligation, new figures-the bureaucrat, the pastor, the entrepreneur-now walk their paths, sometimes diverging, converging with the old ways.

Look closely at the feast table: the pungent aroma of fermented bamboo shoots, a taste acquired over generations, mingles with the scent of spices traded from afar. Observe the attire: the bold geometry of the lohe, speaking volumes of lineage and valour, now shares space with the crisp lines of Western shirts and the bright synthetics flooding the markets from Dimapur and beyond. This is not the stark tableau of a culture extinguished, but the vibrant, often messy, reality of one in constant, dynamic flux.

It is a palimpsest, this contemporary Sumi existence. Beneath the surface text of globalisation, mobile phones, and market economies, the older script – of headhunting glory (now sublimated into fierce community pride), of intricate agricultural rites, of a social universe governed by deep loyalties and obligations – remains stubbornly visible, bleeding through, informing the present. The Sumi are not merely passive recipients of change; they are active agents in their own story, weaving the threads of tradition and modernity into a unique, evolving tapestry. Theirs is a narrative not of simple endings, but of complex continuations, a testament to the resilience and adaptability that have always defined life in the rugged heart of the Naga hills. The story, like the winding paths through their homeland, goes on.