Englands Little War, Grenada Sentinel (Article, 1890)
Full Text
ENGLAND'S LITTLE WEAR
A Campaign Against a Race Where Sexes Are Changeable.
England has a war on her hands. It isn't a very big one, but it gives the English papers something to talk about and the geographic and ethnological sharps a chance to display their knowledge of distant lands and queer people. The conflict rages this time in a corner of India, between Lower Bengal and Upper Burmah, with a race or races known as the Lushais and the Chins. They live among the mountains, and are a very decent sort of savages, it seems, but for an overfondness for strong drinks and head hunting. It is the latter proclivity that has gotten them into trouble with the British this time. The men are strong, honest, and brave, though with an idea of courage different from that of the rest of the world. When the English troops first invaded their country many years ago, the natives shouted to them not to stay out in the open like cowards, but to come into the jungle and fight like men. Each village has its chief, whose will is supreme, and there are recognized one supreme deity and a deputy deity. The latter is supposed frequently to visit the earth and often to be seen by the natives. A future state is also believed in, mighty hunters who have killed an elephant and great warriors who have taken many heads going to a happy hunting ground beyond the river Piel. Common folks and all women, except girls who die before they are weaned, go to the village of dead people. Both in the happy hunting ground and in the village of the dead the native believes that he will live three more lives and then dissolve into mist and sink into the ground forever.
The most peculiar feature of the social life of the people is the manner in which a person can unsex himself or herself. A man dissatisfied with his sex can put on woman's garments and thenceforth be treated as a woman, and a woman may make herself a man in the same way. Women thus made into men even go through the form of marriage with other women, and it is recognized as binding.
The first Lushai expedition of the British was undertaken in 1871 to avenge a series of raids upon English villages, in which many heads had been taken, and in which, especially a white girl named Mary Winchester had been carried off. The girl was rescued uninjured, and the natives were severely punished. Of late years these raids have been renewed, and within a year a band of six hundred Lushai raided in two days twenty-four British villages, killing several hundred British subjects and carrying ninety-one away into captivity. The Chins are the eastern branch of the Lushai race, and have been harrying the villages of Upper Burmah just as the western branch did those of India. Expeditions started against the marauders from both Burmah and Bengal last year, and succeeded before cold weather set in inflicting considerable damage upon the natives and establishing posts some distance within their territory. This spring it is proposed to advance from both directions and to open a permanent way through the country from Burmah to Bengal, and to establish a chain of posts to protect it.--N. Y. Sun.
