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These armlets are taken off as a sign of mourning, but never on ordinary occasions. The Lynngams do not wear Khasi jewellery, but jewellery of a pattern to be seen in the Garo Hills. A distinctive feature of the Lynngam women is the very large number of blue bead necklaces they wear. They put on such a large number as to give them almost the appearance of wearing horse collars.
It is impossible to define the Lynngam country exactly, because these people are continually shifting their village sites owing to the exigencies of jhum cultivation, which has been described in Section II. Some of the Lynngams preserve a tradition that they originally came from the Kamrup plains.
Although mention has been made incidentally in various parts of this monograph of Lynngam customs, it has been thought necessary to give the Lynngams a separate chapter, as these people differ so very greatly from the Khasis in their manner of life, and in their customs. Lynngam is the Khasi name; the Garo name for the Lynngams is Megam.
The people known as Bhois in these hills, who are many of them really Mikirs, live in the low hills to the north and north-east of the district, the term "Bhoi" being a territorial name rather than tribal. The eastern boundary of the Lynngam country may be said to form their north-western boundary. The Wárs inhabit the precipitous slopes and deep valleys to the south of the district.
There do not appear to be any hypergamous groups. As with the Khasis, it is a deadly sin to marry any one belonging to your own kur, or clan. Unlike the Khasis, however, a Lynngam can marry two sisters at a time. The Lynngams intermarry with the Garos. It appears that sometimes the parents of girls exact bride-money, and marriages by capture have been heard of.
The Larnai potters also make flower-pots which are sold in Shillong at from 2 annas to 4 annas each, the price of the ordinary pot or khiew ranei varying from 2 pice to 4 annas each. Laws and Customs Tribal Organization. The inhabitants of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills may be said to be divided into the following sections: Khasi, Synteng or Pnar, Wár, Bhoi, and Lynngam.
One misses the pretty gardens of the Wár villages, for Bhois and Lynngams attempt nothing of the sort, probably because, unlike the Khasi, a Bhoi or Lynngam village never remains more than two or three years in one spot; generally the villages of these people are in the vicinity of the forest clearings, sometimes actually in the midst of them, more especially when the latter are situated in places where jungle is dense, and there is fear of attacks from wild animals.
Here observe that the Standard causative prefix pyn becomes pan in Lynngam. The Infinitive the same form as the Future. Dr. Grierson points out the following most noteworthy fact with reference to the formation of the Lynngam Future and Infinitive, i.e., that similar infixes occur in Malay in the Nancowry dialect of Nicobar, and the Malacca aboriginal languages.
This is a custom of the Thibeto-Burman tribes in Assam, and is not a Khasi institution. There are also high platforms, some 12 ft. or 15 ft. in height, in Lynngam villages, where the elders sit of an evening in the hot weather and take the air.
It is owing to these three different names being used for the same people that there has been so much confusion about Lynngams previously; e.g. at one census they were named Lynngam, at another they received the appellation of Garo, and at a third enumeration they were called Khasis. In Section I. the habitat of the Lynngams has been roughly defined.
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