Angami Naga
names 10objects 10ISO 639-3 njm
Spoken in the Angami country, Naga Hills (now Nagaland).
tribal 10
See the Angami Naga sky on the chart →
The sky in Angami Naga
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| themü | 'Star' as a word | Often regarded as men translated to the heavens after death. No distinction is drawn between stars and planets except size. | tribal |
| Themü-rüü | Castor and Pollux | 'the Star-Girls' Two girls killed by raiders while spinning in front of the house; or, in another version, two girls killed by a tiger while catching snails and fish in the rice terraces — the tiger being the big red star seen just behind them. | tribal |
| Zudio-khupu, Zudio-mikhu | Comets | 'Zudio's pipe', 'Zudio's smoke' A dying man named Zudio said that seven days after his death he would smoke his pipe and everyone would see the smoke of it in the sky, and that after seven generations he would show himself again. A comet appeared after his death, and is seen at rare and long intervals. | tribal |
| Thepeko, Rhupeko | Orion's Belt | possibly 'the Carriers' Three men carrying a post for a house, who were attacked by their enemies and killed. The smaller stars hanging below, forming Orion's sword, are the enemies who ambushed them. | tribal |
| Themü-tikru | The Hyades | 'the Rain-shield stars' A woman's rain-shield, which she suddenly missed from her shoulders and turned to find had been snatched away and set in the sky. | tribal |
| Pfiüdzücha | The Milky Way | 'Pfiü's water channel' It bears the name of the Barak river, which divides the Kacha Naga country. When it is visible fine weather is expected; it is most visible at the beginning of the cold weather, when it lies north to south as the Barak does. | tribal |
| Zuthekroko | The Pleiades | 'the Rat-diggers' Seven men digging out rats in the jungle who were suddenly set upon and killed by their enemies. Hutton connects this with the unluckiness of the number seven among the Angamis: parties of seven are strictly avoided by traders, and by warriors on the warpath. | tribal |
| Themü-pisu | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | — | tribal |
| Kerügu-Vaphi | Venus as evening star | 'the Thief Watcher' It appears in the south-west just after sunset. | tribal |
| Tizhepfü | Venus as morning star | possibly tise-pfü, 'morning bringer' A girl of that name, a great coquette, who made every lad in the village believe she loved him; when they found her out and swore never to look on her face again, she said she would become a big star when she died so that everyone would have to look at her. Fickle or loose women are still compared to Tizhepfü. | tribal |