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The Khasi Hills form the western portion of the district and the Jaintia Hills the eastern. The Khasis inhabit the Khasi Hills proper, and the Syntengs, or Pnars, the Jaintia Hills.
The cost of the marriage ceremonies amongst Khasis, Syntengs and Wárs, may be put down at between Rs. 50 and Rs. 200 according to the position of the parties. Lamdoh Ceremony. This ceremony is identical with that of Pynhiar synjat, except that the bride and bridegroom do not interchange rings, and that there is no sacrifice of the pig.
Gait, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. of 1898, gives some account of the human sacrifices of the Jaintias or Syntengs. He writes as follows: They were also occasionally offered at the shrine of Jainteswari, at Nijpat, i.e. at Jaintiapur, the capital of the country.
The above sections may be sub-divided as follows: The Khasis into the inhabitants of the central high plateau, Cherra and Nongstoin, Maharam, Mario, Nongkhlaw, and the neighbouring Siemships. The Syntengs or Pnars may be divided as follows: Into Syntengs proper, Nongtungs and Kharwangs; the Wárs into Wár proper, and Wár Pnar; the Bhois into Jinthongs, Mynris, Ryngkhongs, and the Khasi-Bhois, i.e.
The military records do not, however, disclose any peculiar battle customs as having been prevalent amongst those hill people then. Both Khasis and Syntengs seem to have fought much in the same manner as other savage hill-men have fought against a foe armed with superior weapons. Human Sacrifices. The Thlen Superstition.
It should be remarked that the Khasis never symbolise their gods by means of images, their worship being offered to the spirit only. The following are some of the principal spirits worshipped by the Khasis and Syntengs, omitting the spirits of deceased ancestors such as Ka Iawobi, u Thawlang and u Suidnia, which will be described under the heading of ancestor-worship.
Waddell to be unacquainted with the art of weaving; but the fact that a considerable weaving industry exists amongst the Khyrwang villages of the Syntengs, and at Mynso and Suhtnga, has been overlooked by him. The Khyrwangs weave a special pattern of cotton and silk cloth, striped red and white. In Mynso and Suhtnga similar cloths are woven, also the sleeveless coat.
The Khasis obtain their silk cloths from the Assam Valley, and from the Nongtung or Khyrwang villages in Jaintia. The latter villages have given the name to the striped cloth, ka jáin Khyrwang, which is almost invariably worn by the Syntengs. Mr. Stack has given in detail a description of the silk industry in Assam, and it is not therefore necessary to go over the same ground here.
The Syntengs have a story that when the strong west wind blows in the spring this is due to the advent of U Kyllang, who comes to visit his wife, the river Umngot, at that season: amongst the Khasis hills are all of them masculine, but to rivers is usually attributed the feminine gender. U Symper is another isolated rocky eminence rising from the Maharam plain close to the village of K'mawan.
The Khasis borrowed their religious customs largely from the Synteng inhabitants of Jaintia, and it is possible that they may have obtained the custom of erecting the table-stones from the Syntengs also, and that the latter were originally used by both of them for sacrificing human victims.
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