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Head Hunters Help YanksNagas Build Roads And Serve as Lookouts in IndiatfiNEW DELHI, Nov. 6.—lt;U.R) Naked head hunters in the wildNaga hills in northeastern India warn American airmen of approaching Japanese air raiders and prefer their pay in tin cans rather than money, an officer just returned from the hills said today.Col. Sam Moore, Jackson Heights.N. Y., said the main credit for the system, which protects American air bases in the Assam region, belongs to Capt. James A. Kehoe, a thin, wiry Irishman of Maysville, Ky.Kehoe, 44, slogged through the Naga hills, which in many places are really mountains, and chose lookout sites and surveyed possibilities for roads which a jeep might negotiate. All the time he made friends wuth the native head hunters.Soon American soldiers followed. With the help of the Nagas they built roads through thickjungle and over precipitous mountains. Way stations were established for standard jeep drivers and the Nagas built bambco lookouthuts.Children Hang on Jeeps.Moore visited one of the waystations in a jeep piloted by Corp. Carl Jenkins, 26, Sparta, Tenn., one of three men permitted to drive over the dangerous trail. Moore said they covered 25 miles in two and one-half hours and climbed to 3,000 feet.Naga children, Moore said, think it great sport to hang onto the jeeps. The natives have placed votive offerings to their gods, consisting of bamboo shoots, feathers and rice, at each treacherous twist in the road to protect their American friends.Moore said at the station he visited, American relations with thehead hunters wrere extremely friendly. But they still gather skulls of enemy tribes, he added, citing Lieut. Lucien L. Hall, Hamilton Field, Calif., as an authority. Hall, 45, while investigating trails, met a Naga chieftain. The American was accompanied by an interpreter and they wrent into the chiefs hut. The Naga showed them a collection of 70 skulls, Moore said, and then made a littlespeech.Lost Skulls in Fire.Hall thought the chief w’as bragging but the interpreter informed him he was apologizing for having such a small collection. The chief explained he had 200 skulLs in his basha—hut—whenit burned down and was able to save only 70. If Hall would return, the chief promised soon to have his stock up to 100.The chief near the station Moore visited, warned the Americans to keep away from his tribe’s handsome, bare-breasted wromen. Heunderscored the warning by drawing his hand across his throat. The soldiers were leaving the native women alone, but Moore did not know whether it was because of the chiefs threat or because the women chew* betel nuts hich stain their teeth and lips coal black. jLieut. Kenneth Blaisdell, 29,Groffstown, N. H., commander of station, is compiling a Naga-Eng-lish dictionary and studying the Naga signal drum “code.” Meanwhile, the natives are picking up English and have masteredscram” and “okay.The Americans have learned touse native bowTs and arrows and some can even outshoot the Nagas,but they still cannot match theirskill with the spear.The head hunters, whose lives of'en depend on their hearing, have proved a great aid in detecting enemy planes, Moore said. They usually shout “limpoo” — aircraft — a good minute before the Americans detect the sound of mo-ai* •IS . *waitors, MooreThey are ifpaid 12 cents a day, but like best g, to be paid in tin cans. The latent g, native fashions call for sardine cans and keys dangling from ear lobes. ,
Newspaper Details
Racine Journal Times
Racine, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Nov 06, 1942
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Midpointe L.
OH, USA 03 Jul 2023
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