NAGA HILLS, a district of British India in the Surma Val ley and Hill Districts division of Assam. It forms part of the mountainous borderland lying between the Brahmaputra valley and Upper Burma. Area, 4,293 sq.m., pop. (1931) The whole country forms a wild expanse of forest, mountain and stream: Japvo (9,890 ft.), south of Kohima, is the highest moun tain in Assam. Coal is known to exist in many localities, as well as iron ore and petroleum ; a coal mine is worked by the Nazira Coal Company. The administrative headquarters of the district are at Kohima, at which is stationed a battalion of the Assam Rifles. When the British first came into contact with them, the Nagas were blood thirsty savages with a passion for head-hunting. The necessity of protecting British subjects from their ferocious raids led to punitive expeditions and the gradual occupation of the hills. A frontier district was first formed in 1866; the twelfth and last expedition came to a successful issue in 188o, after which it was decided that the Naga Hills should be administered as British territory. In 1904 some territory of the eastern Angamis, the most warlike tribe, was annexed, and during the operations of 1917-19 against the Kukis of Manipur a further tract was occu pied, bringing the boundary up to Burma, north of Manipur. Since 1880 the Nagas have given no serious trouble and have been pacified and to some extent civilized. (X.) The Nagas.—This name is used for a group of tribes inhabit ing the northern part of the hills dividing Assam from Burma. Within the group are tribes of mixed origin, varying cultures, and very different physique and appearance, but having enough in common to make it generally possible to say, within the area indicated, whether a given tribe is Naga (as distinct from Kachin, Kuki, Kachari, etc.) or not.
Every sort of political organization is found from the autoc racy of tabued chiefs (Konyak tribes) though gerontocracy (Ao tribe) to purest democracy (Angami tribe). Socially patrilineal exogamy is everywhere the rule, but there are indications of the pre-existence of matrilineal and perhaps totemistic systems and of leviritical polyandry. Dual organization (q.v.) is found and communal houses for the unmarried. Some tribes (e.g., Sema, Chang) practice polygyny; monogamy is more common, divorce being easy and frequent. Inheritance of land always passes in the male line.
as hunting. Fishing is practised, particularly with the use of intoxicants which kill or incapacitate the fish. Manufactures and the arts include weaving (on simple tension looms), dyeing, pot making, blacksmith's work and rough wood-carving. Material culture shows many links with Indonesia and Melanesia, and the northern tribes make huge wooden xylophones, membraneless "drums" often suggestive of dug-out canoes with carved figure heads, which are beaten to raise an alarm or celebrate important events. The prevailing weapon is the throwing-spear, but cross bows are used by some tribes, also guns. Music and dancing are most highly developed in the southern tribes, but are everywhere popular. The languages, which belong to the Tibeto-Burmese family, are diverse and excessively numerous, nearly every village having its own dialect. All dialects are tonal and agglutinative.
See Mills, The Ao Nagas (1926, bibl.). (J. H. H.) NAGASAKI, a town on the south-west of the island of Kyushu, Japan, in 44' N., 51' E., with 204,626 (1931) inhabitants. The first port of entry for ships coming from the south or the west to Japan, it lies at the head of a beautiful inlet some 3 m. long, which forms a splendid anchorage, and is largely used by ships coming to coal and by warships. Marine products, coal and cotton goods are the chief exports, and raw cotton, iron, as well as other metals and materials used for.shipbuilding, consti tute the principal imports. The most important industries of the town are represented by the engine works of Aka-no-ura, three large docks and a patent slip, the property of the Mitsubishi Com pany. Nagasaki is a noted shipbuilding port and coaling station. The coal is obtained chiefly from Takashima, an islet 8 m. S.E. of the entrance to the harbour, and in lesser quantities from two other islets, Naka-no-shima and Ha-shima, which lie about 1 m. farther out.
Nagasaki owed its earliest importance to foreign intercourse. Originally called Fukae-no-ura (Fukae Bay), it was included in the fief of Nagasaki Kotaro in the 12th century, and from him it took its name. But it remained an insignificant village until the 16th century, when, becoming the headquarters of Japanese Christianity, and subsequently the sole emporium of foreign trade in the hands of the Dutch and the Chinese, it developed consider able prosperity. The opening of the port of Moji (q.v.) for export trade deprived Nagasaki of its monopoly as a coaling station. NAGAUR, a town in India, in Jodhpur state of Rajputana. Pop. (1931) 13,837. Nagaur is surrounded by a wall more than 4 m. in circuit. It has given its name to a famous breed of cattle.