NAGA HILLS  , a

district of British India in the Hills division of Eastern Bengal and Assam . It forms part of the mountainous borderland lying between the Brahmaputra valley and Upper Burma . Area, 3070 sq. m.; pop . (1901) 102,402 . Towards the N. lie the Patkoi hills, over which British jurisdiction has never been extended; but since 1904 the southern tract, formerly known as the " area of political control," has been incorporated in the district, thus extending its E. boundary from the Dikho to the Tizic river . The whole country forms a wild expanse of forest, mountain and stream . The valleys are covered with dense jungle, dotted with small lakes and marshes . Coal is known to exist in many localities, as well as iron ore and petroleum . The administrative headquarters of the district are at Kohima (pop . 3093), which is garrisoned by two companies of native infantry and a battalion of military police . The Dimapur-Manipur cart-road crosses the hills, connecting Kohima with the Assam-Bengal railway . Naga means " naked," and is the term applied by the Assamese to the wild tribes of the hills, of which the chief clans are called Angami, Ao, Shota, Sema and Rengma .

These tribes have shown extraordinary obstinacy in their resistance to the British arms . Between 1832 and 1849 ten armed expeditions were despatched to chastise them, and from 1866 to 1887 there were eight more, a

record which exceeds that of the most turbulent tribes on the North-West Frontier . Since 1892, however, little trouble has been experienced . See Naga Hills District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1905) .