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It is a garment of a distinctive character and cannot be mistaken; it used to be worn largely by the Khasis, and is still used extensively by the Syntengs and Lynngams and by the Mikirs, and that it should have been found amongst these Eastern Nagas is certainly remarkable.
I understand that the Mikir stones, like the Khasi, are mere cenotaphs, the ashes of deceased Mikirs being left at the burning places which are generally by the sides of rivers, and the memorial stones not being necessarily anywhere near the burning grounds. Unlike the Khasis, the Mikirs do not collect and carefully keep the bones in stone cairns.
The War law of inheritance differs greatly from that of the Khasis, and the customs of the Bhois or Mikirs, who inhabit the Bhoi doloiship of the Jaintia Hills, are totally different from those of the Khasis, thereby supplying another link in the chain of evidence in support of the conclusion that the Bhois, or, more correctly speaking, the Mikirs, are of Bodo origin, and not Khasi or Mon-Anam.
The Mikirs who inhabit what is known as the "Bhoi" country, lying to the north of the district, consume a good deal of opium, but it must be remembered that they reside in a malarious terai country, and that the use of opium, or same other prophylactic, is probably beneficial as a preventive of fever. The Khasis, like other people of Indo-Chinese origin, are much addicted to gambling.
A comparison between Khasi memorial stones and those of the Ho-Mundas, the stones near Belgaum, those of the Mikirs, the monoliths at Willong in the Manipur Hills, and the Dimapur monoliths. The meaning of the stones. The method of their erection.
As with the Khasis, feasts and entertainments are given when the stones of the Mikirs are erected: but they need not necessarily consist of uneven numbers, it appears. It is possible that the Mikirs may have obtained the custom of erecting memorial stones from their near neighbours, the Khasis.
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.
Butler, writing of the Mikirs 1854, says, "Unlike any other hill tribes of whom we have any knowledge, the Mikirs seem devoid of anything approaching to a martial spirit. They are a quiet, industrious, race of cultivators, and the only weapons used by them are the spear and da hand-bill for cutting down jungle.
The Syntengs of the Jaintia Hills are darker than the Khasi uplanders. The Wárs who live in the low valleys are frequently more swarthy than the Khasis. The Bhois have the flabby-looking yellow skin of the Mikirs, and the Lynngams are darker than the Khakis.
In former days this industry is said to have been considerable, but it has been displaced to a large extent of late years by Manchester piece goods. The number of weavers returned at the last census in the district was 533. The Khasis and Mikirs of the low country, or Bhois as they are called, weave cotton cloths which they dye with the leaves of a plant called u noli.
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