Mishmi dao

Preparing for an expedition into the jungles of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, my friend Harsh and I were reassured by the cutting edge technology of our blades my Swiss knife, his Leatherman. We never used them. Because anything a Victorinox can do, a trusty dao can do better&mdashat least in the hands of a rugged Mishmi backwoodsman. Clearing undergrowth, felling trees, turning giant bamboo into water flasks, slicing leeches from your ankles and even filleting the day&rsquos bag of game (depressingly, it was usually monkey). Harsh and I usually came panting and crashing through the jungle a few hours behind everyone else but there was no better sound than the approaching snicker-snack of daos, heralding the comforts of camp. After eight days of cutting a swathe through the vegetation ahead of us, our guides celebrated the end of their labours by presenting us with a brace of daos. We made it back from their village to Mohanbari airport where the daos showed up on the x-ray machine but caused no alarm. The forgotten Swiss knife was confiscated. I won&rsquot miss it.