THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

were said to be found where tigers lived. Jackals were probably the
most troublesome wild animals in their predations on the domestic. At
night, at any time of year, it was not uncommon to be surprised by the
piercing, eerily human cries of these animals, which hunted individually
but communicated within their group, echoing up and down the valley.7,
As the cries became louder, people sprang into action from their beds or
sleeping mats, meeting the wild with the domestic sounds of banging lids
and a distinctive, yodelling cry;'" too late for many a duck or chicken,
however, Of the five ducks owned by our family, for example, only one
actually reached the mouths of its owners (and their guests) during the
year we lived in their company. During the summer, moreover, jackals
were said to eat the maize cobs growing in the fields.
Monkeys were a serious threat to maize during the growing season, as
we1 1 as being the scourge of cardamom growers. The guns we of ten heard
going off in October/November were generally aimed at monkeys in the
cardamom groves. Various comments about people revolved round their
supposed similarity with monkeys, in appearance or beheviour. When I
ate my maize off the cob with my teeth, rather than using the side of my
thumb to take off the kernels a line at a time, for example, I was told
I was eating maize like a monkey. ! was also persuaded to shave my
beard off while we were in the village, not only because I was said to
be scaring the children but also because it was said I looked like a
monkey!
The porcupine (yakpuca) was also a hazard to the maize crop. "Eko,
hici, sumci, makkai khanne dumsi" ('One, two, three, maize eating
porcupine' ) was a verse said to have been made up by a Damai tailor in
Phumling to entertain the children with Yakha numbers and the Nepa!i