140 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS CHAP.

sons were Kheltea and Siakenga, who quarrelled over the dis-
tribution of their father's goods, which Kheltea, the younger,
had taken, thus conforming to Lushei custom, and set up
separate villages, and from them have sprung the two epo-
nymous families into which the Ralte clan is divided. The
Khelte have always occupied a predominant position, and all
the chiefs belong to this family. Lutmanga, Kheltea's youngest
son, is said to have made the first cloth from the fibre of the
Khawpui creeper. He collected a community at Khuazim, a
hill north of Champhai, and from him all the Ralte chiefs are
descended. In the early years of the nineteenth century the
Ralte villages were near Champhai, and Mangkhaia, a Ealte
chief of importance, was captured by some Chuango, a family
of the Lushei clan, then living at Bualte, above Tuibual
(known to the Chin Hills officers as Dipwell). He was ransomed
by his relatives, but Vanpuia, the Pachuao chief, not receiving'
a share, ambushed Mangkhaia on his way home and killed him.
According to ai^Mir account Mangkhaia filed .through his
fetters with a file given to him in a roll of smoked meat, and
was killed as he was escaping. His memorial stone is famous
throughout the Hills, and stands at the southern extremity of
Champhai. Mangthawnga, father of Mangkhaia, j oined Khawza-
huala the Zadeng, then living at Tualbung, but, being ill-treated,
the Ralte joined Sutmanga, a Thado chief then at Phaileng,
who treated them well. Thawnglura, son of Mangthawnga,
showed his gratitude to Sutmanga by assisting the Sailo chief
Lallianvunga, father of Gnura (Mullah)—whose village Colonel
Lister burnt in 1850—to attack him. Sutmanga then fled north-
wards. It is satisfactory to know that Thawnglura's treachery
was rewarded by the enslavement of his clan, who till our
occupation of the Hills remained vassals of the Sailos. The
Ralte are very quarrelsome, and have to a great extent resisted
absorption into the Lushais. In some Sailo chiefs' villages
there are so many Ralte that the chief himself speaks their
dialect, and though Lushai is understood little else but Ralte is
heard in the village.

The Ralte are linguistically connected with the Thado, and,
like the Thado, they used not to build zawlbuks, but are now
following Lushai custom in this respect.