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He proceeded to cut up the body, and sent pieces in every direction, with orders that the people were to eat them. Wherever the order was obeyed, the country became free of the thlen, but one small piece remained which no one would eat, and from this sprang a multitude of thlens, which infest the residents of Cherra and its neighbourhood.
Shadwell, of Cherrapunji, whose memory carries him back to the time when the British first occupied the Khasi Hills, has a recollection of a Khasi dance at Cherra, round an altar, upon which the heads of some Dykhars, or plains people, killed in a frontier raid had been placed. The Khasis used to sacrifice to a number of other gods also for success in battle.
Before the advent of the British into the hills the Khasis are said to have been acquainted with the art of manufacturing gunpowder, which was prepared in the neighbourhood of Mawsanram, Kynchi, and Cherra. The gunpowder used to be manufactured of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, the three ingredients being pounded together in a mortar.
In the family of the chiefs of Cherra, the body of a deceased Siem is subjected to the following process: It is wrapped in a cloth and placed in the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, ka-shyngoid, there being a small hole with a plug at the bottom of this receptacle. Spirit is then poured into the shyngoid until the whole body is immersed, the liquor being allowed to stand for three days.
The Siems are appointed by an assembly, or durbar, which will be described later. The chiefs, having been thus chosen by the durbar, which is supposed by the people to be an institution of Divine origin, are styled, ki Siem u blei, or Siems of God. In most States the Siem is the religious as well as the secular head, e.g. in the Cherra State, where the Siem is also lyngdoh.
Close to Lucky Cherra Garden was a tract of bustee land on which some Bengali cultivators grew rice and other crops. Our Company's boundary line in some way conflicted with theirs, and a dispute arose which soon developed into a series of, first, most comical mix-ups, and afterwards into desperate "lathi" fights.
He is the same old rogue who gobbled up little Red Riding Hood's grandmother for lunch, and swallowed little Red Riding Hood for supper. Tirez la bobinette et la chevillette cherra. He, he!" An owl that was hidden in the hollow of the tree woke up. "Oho, Master Fox," says she, "I cannot see you, but I smell you! If some folks like lambs, other folks like geese," says the owl.
There are at the present time the corpses of two Siems of Cherra which have been preserved in the manner described above, awaiting cremation. The first Siem, U Ram Singh, died as far back as 1875, and the second, U Hajon Manik, died in 1901. But the members of the Siem family and the old residents deny that honey is used for this purpose nowadays, possibly in the interests of the trade.
The various gardens are distinguishable by means of boundary stones or stone cairns, by prominent trees on the boundary lines, or by natural boundaries such as streams. In the Wár country to the West of Cherra, notably the country between the heights of Laitkynsew and the plains, considerable portions of the hill-sides are the property of communities known as sengs.
At the end of one year I was offered and accepted the position of assistant at a Sylhet garden, called Kessoregool, the property consisting of three distinct gardens, the principal one being directly overseered by the manager, an American. He, of course, was my superior. My charge was the Lucky Cherra Gardens, some few miles away.
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