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In the country of the Lynngams the crop belongs to the person who cultivates it, but the land belongs to the kur or family. The Lynngam villages; like those in the Khasi Siemships, do not pay any rent to the Siem.

It is easier to obtain coolies in the Khasi than in the Jaintia Hills, where a large proportion of the population is employed in cultivation. The Khasis are excellent labourers, and cheerful and willing, but they at once resent bad treatment, and are then intractable and hard to manage. Khasis are averse to working in the plains in the hot-weather months. Apiculture. I am indebted to Mr.

They have the cloak and the head-wrapper just the same as the Khasi women. The Synteng striped cloth may be observed in the picture of the Synteng girl in the plate. Khasi women on festive occasions, such as the annual Nongkrem puja, do not cover the head. The hair is then decked with jewellery or with flowers; but on all ordinary occasions Khasi women cover the head.

This somewhat paradoxical state of affairs is explained by the fact that the children of the mother's brother belong to a different clan to that of the mother, i.e. to the mother's brother's wife's clan. The Khasi, Synteng, Wár, and Lynngam divisions are not strictly endogamous groups, and there is nothing to prevent intermarriage between them.

In Nongkrem the electors may disqualify the first, or any, heir to the Siemship for sufficient reason according to the Khasi religion and custom, such as bad character, physical disability, change of religion, etc. If the first heir be disqualified, the next in order must be appointed Siem, unless he be disqualified, and so on.

The dolois, under the rules for the administration of justice in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, as well as the Sirdars of the British villages in the Khasi Hills, possess certain judicial powers. They are assisted by officials known as pators, basans, and sangots in the performance of their duties.

I am not in a position to state with any degree of accuracy what is the amount of spirit manufactured or consumed in the year, but it is very considerable. The out-turn of a Khasi still has been reckoned at from four to eight bottles per day. From this estimate, and the fact that there are 1,530 stills in the district, it may be roughly calculated what is the consumption annually.

The old-fashioned Khasi female's dress, which is that worn by people of the cultivator class of the present day, is the following: Next to the skin is worn a garment called ka jympien, which is a piece of cloth wound round the body and fastened at the loins with a kind of cloth belt, and which hangs down from the waist to the knee or a little above it.

They may be said to be almost exactly similar to the lines of Khasi memorial stones, except that the stones depicted by Waring have circles or ovals painted on them, which are said to signify that certain sacrifices of animals have been performed. Now the Khasis perform such sacrifices; but they do not mark their performance thus on the stones.

The rice grown in the hills is said by the Agricultural Department to be of inferior quality, the grain when cleaned being of a red colour, and extremely coarse. The cultivation of potatoes is practically confined to the Khasi Hills, there being little or none in the Jaintia Hills.