There is nothing in Indian thought structure, nor in the traditional organisation of Indian society, that may correspond to the Western evolutionary notion of tribe as a vestige of savagery and barbarism. Yet, tribe exists in India as a political category created by the British Raj, intellectualised by the colonial anthropologists, and sanctified by the Constitution of modern India. These so-called precultural groups, properly speaking, are the people of Oral Culture.¹ This essay attempts to explore their implicit philosophy and worldview, their vision of the cosmos. In so doing, it examines the myths of the North-East India tribes.