KUKI occupy the country to the south of the Garo, Khassya, and Mikir areas, or the hill ranges of Garo, Jaintia, and Kachar, in Sylhet, Tiperah, and Chittagong, among the mountains to the north-east of the Chittagong province. They are found as neighbours of the Naga in Assam, and in contiguity with the Mugh of Arakan, and thus the hill country occupied by them extends from the valley of the Koladyn, where they touch on the Kumi, to Northern Kachar and Munipur, a distance of about 300 miles.
The Kachar old Kuki are arranged into three divisions,—the Rhangkul, the Khehna, and the Betch. The Kuki are also called Lungkta.
New Kuki came from the ruder parts of Tiperah and Chittagong, and their form of speech is not always intelligible to an old Kuki. The Munipur dialects and that of the new Kuki are mutually intelligible. In 1848-49, four Kuki tribes—the Thadan, the Shingson, the Changsen, and the Lhungam—were driven into North and South Kachar and into Munipur, from their loca tions, by the Lushai people, who speak a Kuki dialect, but dwell farther south. They were driven back by Colonel Lister and his Sylhet light infantry. He entertained the new Kuki as soldiers, and they formed good outpost soldiers on the frontiers of both the Lushai and the Angami countries. The Kuki on the eastern frontier are commonly known by Tiperah. In physiognomy some of them are like the Munipuri, but the greater part bear more resemblance to the Khasiya tribes, having strongly marked Kal muk or Mongolian features, with flat faces and thick lips, not in general shorter in stature than Bengali, but far more muscular and strongly made ; many of them with complexions scarcely darker than a swarthy European. The villages contain perhaps from 100 to 200 inhabitants each, and each house is raised on bamboo piles 4 or 5 feet from the ground. The sites of the Kuki villages are well chosen on the broadest parts of the highest ridges, with water near at band, generally a small hill stream. Some of the chief villages contain as many as 200 houses, commodiously built on platforms raised between 3 and 4 feet from the ground. Every part of the house is formed of bamboo, there being but few trees of any kind.
Kuki of the Tiperah Hills are divided into the Umroi, Chutlang, Halam, Barpai, and Kochauk Kuki. Their only deity is Lachi, to whom they offer the head and neck of a cock. The Chitta gong Kuki are divided into Chukma, Tiperah, Reang, and Susai Kuki.
The Kuki who came into Assam from the Chittagong Hills about the beginning of the 19th century, were in a state of nudity, but were soon induced to wear clothing. Since then, four large tribes of Kuki —the Thadan, Shingson. Changsen, and Lhungam—were defeated in a war with the Lushai, and fled into Kachar, where the British Indian Government allowed them to settle.
The Khong-jai Kuki, until lately, occupied the hills to the south of the Koupooee. Whilst in this position, little or nothing of them was known, but they caused fear from their vicinity. South of them lay the Poi, Soote, Taute, Lushai, and other tribes, better armed than they were, and of the same Bens as themselves, but at feud with them. By these they were driven from their native hills, the task being rendered easier by the internal animosities of the Khong•jai themselves, and the Khong-jai are now scattered around the valley of Munipur, and thence through the hills to North and South Kachar. Thus they broke into distinct tribes ; although occupants of the hills to the south of the valley of Munipur, their traditions do not give the southern hills as the place of their origin, but rather lead them to the belief that it was in the north.
The new Kuki clans are presided over by rajas and muntris. One, among all the rajas of each class, is chosen to be the Prudham or chief raja of that clan. The tradition of the Kuki respect ing their origin is, that they and the Mugh. are the offspring of the same progenitor, who had two sons by different mothers. The Mugh, they say, are the descendants of the elder, and the Kuki of the younger son. The mother of the younger having (lied during his infancy, he was neglected by his stepmother, who, while she clothed her own son, allowed him to go naked. Each man lives with his family in a separate house. The widows live in houses of their own (in this respect like the Naga and Kachari), built for them by the villagers. The men wear a largo cloth, some times two, wrapped loosely round the body, and hanging from the shoulder to the knee. The women wear a short striped petticoat, reaching from the upper part of the body half-way down to the knee. Married women have their breasts bare, but all virgins are covered, wearing a cloth wound round the bosom underneath the armpits. They wear their hair prettily plaited at the back, the two ends being brought round in front, and tied just above the forehead in the form of a coronet. Like all hill people, the Kuki are dirty ia their habits, very seldom washing their bodies. At 12 or 13, a boy is excluded from the family mansion at night, and compelled to take rest or share of the vigil with the young men in the watch-houses.
When a married man dies, all his friends assemble and bewail their loss. Vegetables and rice are cooked, and placed on the left side of the corpse, with a gourd or bottle. The object of the Kuki inroads on the plains was not plunder, for which they have never been known to show any desire ; but they kill and carry away the heads of as many human beings as they can seize, and have been known, in one night, to carry off fifty. These are used in certain ceremonies performed at the funerals of their chiefs, and it is always after the death of one of their rajas that their incursions occur. The Kuki smoke dry the dead bodies of the rajas. His body is kept in this state for two months before burial, in order that his family and clan may still have the satisfaction of having him before them. Should a raja fall in battle by any chance, they immediately proceed on a war expedition, kill and bring in the head of some individual, hold feasting and dancings, and then, after cutting the head into pieces, send a portion to each village of the clan. This was done on the murder of the Kuki raja by the Nimzai Naga race. This is considered in the light of sacrifice to appease the manes of the deceased chief. The Kukt have been accused of cannibalism, and in one instance the charge seemed substantiated, but they disclaim the imputation with much vehemence.
In the spring of 1871, they made several inroads into Assam, for the purpose, as was alleged, of obtaining heads for the manes of a chief's daughter.
Puthen is their chief deity, he is benevolent ; and Ghumvishve is a malignant deity. The Kuki likewise worship the moon. They have no pro fessed minister of religion. The Thempu, their priest and diviner, is not hereditary, and his office is not coveted from fear of the initiatory rites.— Cole. ; J. II. Reynold's Embassy of 1864, B. A. S. J.; Buttler's Travels in Assam ; Aitcheson's Treaties ; Dalton's Ethnol.