Sometimes this punishment
is exceedingly severe, being inflicted with the coorbatch,
or whip of hippopotamus hide, which is cracked vigorously
about his ribs and back. If the happy husband wishes to
be considered a man worth having, he must receive the
chastisement with an expression of enjoyment; in which case
the crowds of women in admiration again raise their thrilling
cry.[190]
A very simple record of successful activity is the bones of animals.
McCosh says of the Mishmis of India:
Nor are these hospitable rites allowed to be forgotten; the
skull of every animal that has graced the board is hung up
as a record in the hall of the entertainer; he who has
the best-stocked Golgotha is looked upon as the man of the
greatest wealth and liberality, and when he dies the whole
smoke-dried collection of many years is piled upon his grave
as a monument of his riches and a memorial of his worth.[191]
And Grange of the Nagas:
In front of the houses of the greater folks are strung up
the bones of the animals with which they have feasted the
villagers, whether tigers, elephants, cows, hogs, or monkeys,
or aught else, for it signifies little what comes to their
net.
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