Hekko

This is 'Hekko' from your book, Santoor (Chapter 9). It tells about a game from Nagaland. Here it is, told in short.

The chapter tells us that 'hek' means to challenge and 'ko' means tiger. So 'Hekko' means challenging the tiger. The name comes from a folk story of Nagaland. Long ago, humans and animals lived together, but they could not agree about who was greater. So the humans, called Aami (the Man), challenged Aakho (the Tiger). That challenge came to be called Hekko.

Today, the people of the Mokokchung district of Nagaland play Hekko as a team game. The game also shows who the strongest people in the village are. There are two teams of 11 players each. A toss before the game decides which team is called Aami and which is called Aakho.

First, a circle is drawn. The Aami team stays inside the circle, holding on to each other in a human chain. The Aakho team stays outside. Two Aakho players go into the circle and try to push the Aami players out. An Aami player who is pushed out is out, and cannot come back in.

The Aami team tries to catch the Aakho players by surrounding them. A caught Aakho player is not let go until he says 'Joko', which means 'I surrender'. Then another Aakho player comes in. At the end, the fastest player of the Aami team gets the title 'Khozuba', and the strongest player of the Aakho team gets the title 'Khotiba'.