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Moberly, the Superintendent of Ethnography in Bengal, reports that the ashes of deceased Hos, after being sprinkled with water by means of peepul branches, we collected, dried, and placed in a new earthen pot, and kept in the house until the day of burial, which may take place, as with the Khasis, long afterwards. Khasi Memorial Stones.
The leaves of the sning, or Khasi oak, are wrapped round the post of the house, and, a fowl is sacrificed and other formalities are observed which it would be tedious to describe in detail.
The Khasi house is oval-shaped, and is divided into three rooms, a porch, a centre room, and a retiring-room. In olden days the Khasis considered nails sang, or taboo, and only used a certain kind of timber for the fender which surrounds the hearth; but they are not so particular now-a-days. In Mawkhar, Cherrapunji, and other large villages, the walls of houses are generally of stone.
The tales which will be found reproduced in the original Khasi have been obtained from a collection which was in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Roberts, of Cherrapunji, who very kindly placed it at my disposal. The translations are by U Nissor Singh, Sub-Inspector of Schools, and the author of a Khasi English Dictionary as well as certain other educational works in that language. Dr.
The Mynnar or Jirang dialect of Khasi, spoken on the extreme north of the hills, also appears to possess some words which are very similar indeed to some of the Mon-Khmer forms given by Professor Kuhn.
Waring in his book gives an illustration of several lines of stone monuments with two table-stones, either in front or in rear according to the position of the photographer or draftsman in taking the picture, which would appear to be very similar to the lines of menhirs we find in the Khasi Hills. In plate XLII, fig. 6, of Waring's book, are the lines of stones to which I refer.
In Shillong the Government Offices and the printing press give employment to a certain number of Khasis. There is also a fair demand for Khasi domestic servants, both among the Europeans and the Bengali and Assamese clerks who are employed at the headquarters of the Administration. The manufacture of country spirit gives employment to a considerable number of persons, most of whom are females.
Interrogative adverbs may either precede or follow the verb, e.g. naei phi wan, or phi wan naei, where do you come from? No account of the Khasi language would be complete without some reference to the adverbs which are so very numerous in Khasi.
Of late years a new custom has arisen, and now in the Khasi tribe, when one or two children have been born, and if the marriage is a happy one, the couple frequently leave the family home, and set up housekeeping for themselves. When this is done, husband and wife pool their earnings for the support of the family.
The bowstring is of split bamboo, the bamboos that are used being u spit, u shken, and u siej-lieh. Both are made out of bamboo. The first kind is used for hunting, the latter for archery matches only. Archery may be styled the Khasi national game. A description of Khasi archery will be found under the heading "Games."
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