Kachina

“ The Chinese men are without women and carry burdens, the Kachins carry their swords slung under the left arm, and their women carry their burdens. Some tribesmen have bows and arrows as well as swords. The Kachin woman's costume is of a pretty colour, a little dark velvet jacket with short sleeves, a kilt to the knee, and dark putties, both of woven colours like tartan, in diced and in herringbone and running patterns. She carries the load in a narrow, finely-woven basket on her back, and her black hair is dressed after the fashion in Whitechapel. ”

“ These dusky figures are Kachin men, with red turbans, and short, white, very loose kilts and bolero jackets. Some of the reflected light from the sand shows their curious, serious, boyish faces. They are short, but well-knit; they dance in a slow figure in a line, hand in hand, the bare feet shuffling with a little sound in the dust. The music is very faint, but you long to be able to remember the uncommon air that seems to have caught the quiet of the hills, and the depths of the bamboo woods.
These Kachin players are natives of the mountains here, and to the north. ”

“ As a race, they have the vigour and vitality characteristic of mountaineers. They are distinctly one of the most progressive races of Burma, and, but for our advent, would have penetrated gradually far into the plains of Burma and the Shan States. Washed and brushed up, many Kachins show signs of a high order of intelligence.
At this time the Bhamo district still included all the Kachin country, Myitkyina not being yet constituted a separate charge. ”

“ The Kachins have gradually forced the Palaungs and Shans before them, or isolating some of their villages from the main body. Their sudden development of power is remarkable. Political changes consequent on the annexation of Upper Burma checked Kachin aggressions. They are still spreading, but by fairly peaceable means. The Namkham district, supposedly Shan, is found to contain fully as many Kachins as Shans. Slowly but surely the Shans will be pressed southward. Before passing under control of the British the various tribes of Kachins were ever at war among themselves. ”

“ If there is any one feature which distinguishes a Katcina it is the use, by some or all of the participants, of a mask or ceremonial helmet. The Katcinas are divided into two groups, the complete and the abbreviated; the former is constant year by year, the latter varying. Altars are present in the complete, absent in abbreviated presentations. A cloud-charm altar or invocation to the six world-quarter deities is sometimes made. Public announcements are not prescribed. The Tcukúwympkiya or clowns are generally present. ”

“ In recent times they have spread a long way to the South, there being many isolated Kachin villages in the Southern Shan States and even beyond the Salween river. The Kachins are broken up into small communities, each with its own chief, but have no common authority, and, owing to blood feuds often lasting several generations, there is a rigid exclusiveness between different tribes. ”

“ Owing to the great number of tribes, sub-tribes and clans of the Kachins, the part of the Kachin hills which has been taken under administration in the Myitkyina and Bhamo districts was divided into 40 Kachin hill tracts (recently reduced to five) . Beyond these tracts there are many Kachins in Katha, Möng Mit and the northern Shan States. The country within the Kachin hill tracts is roughly estimated at 19,177 sq. m., and consists of a series of ranges, for the most part running north and south, and intersected by valleys, all leading towards the Irrawaddy, which drains the country. ”

“ It is thoroughly well established that the Kakhyens themselves possess no mules, or at least so few as to be insufficient for the carriage of any large amount of baggage or goods. When the chiefs have been employed to procure mules, they hire them from the Shans, acting thus as middle-men, and in our case making an exorbitant profit. Their incurable habits of pilfering and meddling curiosity render them unfit to be employed as porters. All beasts of burden, and coolies, if required, should be procured either in Burma or by direct agents, hiring them in the Shan districts subject to China ”

“ Kachi, who had been intrusted with a stubborn, strong beast, which I had specially promised my men for their dinner if they made a long march that day, was outwitted by the sheep. It freed its head from the cord with which Kachi was dragging it, and cantered away full speed in the opposite direction to the one in which we were travelling. It is well known that at great altitudes running is a painful operation, for the rarefied air makes such exertion almost suffocating. ”

“ It seemed to us that the Kakhyen men were ready to adopt any dress; some even wore their hair in the Chinese pigtail. The “Red Pawmine,” on grand occasions, turned out in a bright red turban, rose-checked breeches, and a red blanket over his shoulders. The chiefs usually wear Chinese padded jackets, leggings made of rolls of blue cloth, and Shan shoes. They are distinguished, especially in the case of those who rigidly adhere to the ancient Kakhyen costume, by neck-hoops of silver, resembling Celtic torques, and the necklace of beads or cylinders of an ochreous earth. ”

“ Now the Kachins are on both sides of the border of Upper Burma, and are a force to be reckoned with by frontier administrators. According to the Kachin Hill Tribes Regulation of 1895, administrative responsibility is accepted by the British government on the left bank of the Irrawaddy for the country south of the Nmaikha, and on the right bank for the country south of a line drawn from the confluence of the Malikha and Nmaikha through the northern limit of the Laban district and including the jade mines. ”

“ The Kachin, from habit, is watchful and suspicious of strangers,—until his confidence is gained. Their villages are usually high up in the hills, as secluded and inaccessible as possible. [Pg 106] But the isolated situation of the village probably is due to the fear of nats, spirits,—quite as much as from fear of human enemies. ”

“ Then when silence fell upon them young Kasyan spoke:
"Greatly have ye sinned against the Most High, ye mighty heroes of Holy Russia; for though ye are bold and fearless, ye have made a plaything of death and shed much blood without cause. Will you agree, one and all, to follow out my plan? It would be better that each of us should now go on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem, to pray in the Holy of Holies, to visit the grave of the Risen Lord, and to bathe in Jordan river, for in this way only shall we win pardon for our sins. ”

“ Sitcomovi and Hano have no Niman Katcina, nor do they celebrate the Tusayan ritual in its entirety. The word Katcina is used to designate both a dance and a participant in a dance. Between July and January there are no Katcina rites in Tusayan.
[2] I have been interested to discover what proportion of the whole number of Hopi ceremonials have been described, and the results are such as to allay any conceit that we know much about the subject. Without considering the abbreviated ceremonials there are in the ritual 12 which are of nine days duration. ”

“ The Katcinamanas dance in line facing the Katcinas, or kneel in front of the same, accompanying their songs with a rasping noise made by rubbing a scapula over a notched stick. Ordinarily their mask is identical in all Katcinas of the abbreviated form, and they generally have their hair in two whorls on the sides of the head, and wear white blankets and other feminine apparel. The second group of personifications are the Tcukúwympkiyas (Tatcü′kti, knob-head priests; Tcü′ckütû, gluttons; or Paiakaíamû, horned clowns) . ”

“ It seems incredible that so many families of one race, occupying the same territory, and with practically the same habits, customs, and superstitions,—should each perpetuate for centuries its own peculiar dialect and clannish exclusiveness. The missionary or official, to do effective work among such a people, needs a small army of interpreters at his heels.
THE KACHINS
The Kachins inhabit the extreme northern part of Burma, extending as far south as the Bhamo and Namkham districts, and east into China. ”

“ Even the Karens and Kachins, who have no other form of belief, do not regard them otherwise than as malevolent beings who must be looked up to with fear, and propitiated by regular offerings. They do not want to have anything to do with the nats; all they seek is to be let alone. The bamboo pipes of spirit, the bones of sacrificial animals, the hatchets, swords, spears, bows and arrows that line the way to a Kachin village, are placed there not with the idea of attracting the spirits, but of preventing them from coming right among the houses in search of their requirements. ”

“ This ceremony brought the separate history of the Kalkas to a close, since from that time they have been engulfed in the Chinese Empire.
During the Kin dynasty of China the Keraits, as has been pointed out, were for a time supreme in Mongolia, and it was during that period that one of the earliest recognized sovereigns, Merghus Buyuruk Khan, sat on the throne. In an engagement with a neighbouring Tatar tribe their khan was captured and sent as a propitiatory present to the Kin emperor, who put him to death by nailing him on a wooden ass. ”

“ Then he laid his white hand upon her lowly head and pardoned her, and she arose, arrayed herself, and had never seemed so fair in the eyes of her lord, Prince Vladimir.
Then after feasting and quiet merriment the one-and-forty pilgrims went to their own home; and young Kasyan raised a cathedral church to St. Nicholas, who loved all men and especially youths and maidens; and for himself he spent his time in holy deeds and in ministration to the poor, loving always the Dream Maiden only and keeping her ever in his golden heart. ”

“ This ancestor had many sons and from the eldest are descended the true Kachins who migrated from the Khakhu or headwaters; from the remaining sons are derived the various tribes. There is no doubt of the Tartar origin of the Kachins, although the isolating character of the hill country in which they live, their combative nature, and blood feuds have caused the race to be divided and sub-divided to a great extent. The tribes, sub-tribes and clans have decided differences in dress and sometimes even in physical appearance. ”

“ The old ladies in tall blue serge turbans and tunics and putties of the same colour rather struck me—they are Shans from the East—with little shrewd twinkling black eyes, short noses and a gentle expression, and that break in the eyebrow, which I think characteristic of a certain dark Celtic type.
The above sketch represents a corner of the market; in the centre a Kachin fairly characteristic but too tall, beside him his sturdy kilted wife, with the usual basket on her back; other figures, a Burmese girl, a Chinese woman, Sikhs, and distant Shan woman. ”

“ From the same clay, a number of Shan-Chinese from Hotha and Latha make sun-dried bricks outside the town, and a colony of the same people sojourn every winter at Bhamô, making dahs, or long knives, which are in great demand. A number of Kakhyens are often to be seen near the town, bringing rice, opium, silver, and pigs for sale. Their chief object is to procure salt, for which necessary they are dependent on Burma. They are not allowed to encamp within the town, but are compelled to shelter themselves outside the gates, in miserable wigwams. ”

“ The continued misconduct of the Sana Kachins from beyond the administrative border rendered punitive measures necessary. They had remained unpunished since the attack on Myitkyina in December 1892. Two columns were sent up, one of 250 rifles from Myitkyina, the other of 200 rifles from Mogaung, marching in December 1895. The resistance was insignificant, and the operations were completely successful. A strong force of military police is stationed at Myitkyina, with several outposts in the Kachin hills, and the country is never wholly free from crimes of violence committed by the Kachins. ”

“ As I have already pointed out, the youth who dons the mask of a Katcina is believed to be for the time transformed into a deity (soul) .
[70] Moñ, chief; kohu, wood—a chieftain’s badge.
[71] Eótoto (“Aiwótoto”) , has been described in my account of the daybreak ceremonials of the Farewell Katcina (Journal of American Ethnology and Archæology, vol. II, No. 1) . Hahaíwüqti has been figured and described in my article on Certain Personages who Appear in a Tusayan Ceremony (American Anthropologist, January, 1894) .
[72] A society comparable with the “Priesthood of the Bow” at Zuñi. ”

“ Small men never suffer. If they do, it does not matter. Only great men's sufferings are worth noticing. If you suffer, I will suffer. I will come."
Kachi's philosophy touched me. He meant what he said. I decided to take him.
This was a piece of luck. Kachi Ram had five bosom friends among the young Shoka coolies. In the evenings in camp they often joined in weird love-songs, in memory of the fair maids of their hearts whom they had left behind, on the other side of the Himahlyas. ”

“ The limbs are slight, though well formed, one peculiarity being the disproportionate shortness of the legs. This is also observable among the Karens, to whom the Kakhyens bear a general resemblance, suggesting a common origin, which is further indicated by their language. Though not muscular, they are very agile, and the young girls bound like deer along the hill-paths, their loose dark locks streaming behind them. They bring down from the hills loads of firewood and deal planks which we found as much as we could lift. ”