NÁGA HILLS, a district in the south-eastern corner of the chief-commissionership of Assam, India, lies between 25° 13' and 26° 32' N. lat., and between 93° and 94° 13' E. long., being a mountainous borderland between Nowgong district and Manipur state, with an area of about 6400 square miles. It forms a wild expanse of forest, mountain, and stream. The valleys and hills are covered with dense jungle, dotted with small lakes and marshes. Coal is known to exist in many localities, as well as limestone, chalk, and slate. The chief rivers are the Dâyang, Dhaneswari, and Jamuna, only navigable for small boats during the rainy season.

In 1870 the deputy-commissioner roughly estimated the strength of the different tribes as follows :—Assamese, 705; Aitaniyâs, 355; Câchâris, 3505; Mikirs, 8820; Kukis, 2524; Nâgâs, 66,535; total, 82,444. The estimated population in 1881-82 was 93,000. Agriculture is conducted in a rude, nomadic fashion, the only implements of tillage being the ddo or hill knife, and a koddli or hoe. Rice and millet are the main crops. In some places great skill is displayed in irrigation. The tea plant is indigenous, and a large number of natives are now employed in the tea-gardens. The manufactures embrace the production of the few rude articles required for domestic use or as clothing, and the forging of ddos, koddlis, and spear-heads. Trade is generally conducted by means of barter, and has considerably increased of late years. The local products available for export comprise rice, cotton, cloth woven from nettle fibre, ivory, beeswax, and various dyes obtained from the jungle. Salt and iron are imported; but the one great desire of every Nâgâ is to have a gun. The revenμe is nominal....