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Wax is obtained by placing the comb in boiling water and allowing it to cool, when the wax floats to the surface. The Khasis do not systematically tend their bees, as they do not understand how to prevent swarming, and as the Khasi bee is a prolific swarmer, hives become weak very soon and a new hive has to be started from a captured natural swarm.
It would be interesting to compare some head measurements of Khasis with Japanese, but unfortunately the necessary data are not available in the case of the latter people. The Khasi head may be styled sub-brachy-cephalic. Eyes are of medium size, in colour black or brown. In the Jaintia Hills hazel eyes are not uncommon, especially amongst females.
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.
By way of introduction it should be stated that the Khasis opine that arrow-shooting originated at the beginning of creation. At the present day villages have regular archery meetings, the men of one village challenging those of another.
Whether the first cousins of the Khasis, the Mons, moved to their present abode from China, whether they are the aborigines of the portion of Burma they at present occupy, or were one of the races "of Turanian origin" who, as Forbes thinks, originally occupied the valley of the Ganges before the Aryan invasion, must be left to others more qualified than myself to determine.
An elderly man, who knows how to perform the naming puja, which is called by the Khasis "kaba jer khun," places a plantain-leaf on the floor and sprinkles some water on it. He takes the gourd in his hand and calls a god to witness. The people assembled then mention a number of names for the child, and ask the man who is performing the puja to repeat them.
Divination by breaking eggs and by other means, although not strictly sacrifice with the Khasis, partakes of the nature of a religious ceremony. Such divinations are of almost every-day occurrence in a Khasi house, and always precede sacrifices. The Khasis, moreover, do nothing of what they consider to be of even the least importance without breaking eggs.
In Nongstoin, Mawlih, and Mariaw villages, the inhabitants of which profess to be Khasis, the bones and ashes of the deceased are not collected and placed in repositories, as at Cherrapunji. At Mariaw and Nongstoin a large wooden coffin is used, painted white, with ornamentations on the outside, and standing on four legs. This coffin is not burnt on the funeral pyre.
The Khasis not only revere the memories of deceased ancestors, but they adore them by means of offerings, which are sometimes periodical, and sometimes made when thought necessary, as in times of trouble.
Not so, however, the Wárs who live on the southern slopes, for although their country is very hot at certain times of the year, it does not appear to be abnormally unhealthy except in certain villages, such as Shella, Borpunji, Umniuh, and in Narpuh in the Jaintia Hills. Origin. The origin of the Khasis is a very vexed question.
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