Among the Headhunters by Robert Lyman

Author:Robert Lyman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780306824685
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2016-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

10

THE BATTLE OF PANGSHA

Tuesday, November 24, began with reveille at 4 a.m. Mills wrote in his daily letter to Pamela that the immediate tragedy was that the bitters for the gin had somehow been left behind, but to all other intents and purposes, progress was good. The 150 sepoys and 120 porters (240 porters remained at the forward camp at Chingmei) of the “forward” expedition were under way by 6 a.m., dropping down a steep hill to a stream running through the valley below. It was now that they heard from Noklak. The villagers would not clear the path to their village, they said, and although they would not impede the expedition, neither would they help it. The message demonstrated neither hostility nor friendship, merely fear. The people of Noklak were unsure who would be successful in the coming fight with Pangsha and clearly wished to hedge their bets, even if it meant incurring Mills’s wrath. Chingmak, however, was eager to lend a hand and provided Mills and Williams with six men to show them the way and to scout out the land as the expedition wove its slow way through the hills. The immediate problem was that the boundaries between Chingmei and Noklak were liberally spiked with panji, since the two villages of course were at war. Clearing the path was tedious and painful. The last two hours proved very slow going, with thick vegetation having to be removed slowly by dao along an overgrown path that boasted a steep precipice down its right-hand side. And the panji began to take their toll: “One Chingmei man got a panji clean through his foot, and one was badly cut up by a panji on the shin, and one Sepoy was badly cut in the calf. Also one Sepoy was terribly stung in a mysterious way and had enormous swellings on his throat, arms and thighs.” When Noklak finally appeared before them the village seemed entirely devoid of life. Then a large body of armed men appeared on a path farther down the hill. Williams ordered his sepoys to advance purposefully on the Noklak warriors with their bayonets fixed, and the confidence and discipline of the troops made an immediate impact on the Nagas, who offered if not obeisance then certainly nervous subservience. More practically, they made a peace offering of ten pigs, ten fowls, and an enormous smelly goat. Two men who came forward, clearly leaders, greeted Chingmak like an old friend, to Mills’s amusement, given the two tribes’ historic animosity. The Noklak men showed Mills and Williams an area of grass that provided cramped but adequate space for the tented camp but did nothing to help in the construction of the final camp and stockade. As a result of their noncooperation, the village’s precious stocks of bamboo were pillaged freely by the expedition to build the palisade. The work took all afternoon. All the while, as Mills admitted, they nervously waited for the flights of arrows that might come from the thickets of vegetation.

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