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Updated: May 15, 2025
Strange to say, according to Khasi ideas, this is one of the highest points in the hills; in reality Sophet Byneng is some 2,000 ft. lower than the Shillong Peak. As mentioned elsewhere, the Khasis are very fond of dogs; so I have given their version of how the dog came to live with man. The well-known thlen superstition will be found fully described under the heading of "Human sacrifices."
The spirit is distilled both for home consumption and for purposes of sale; in some villages, e.g. Mawlai and Marbisu, near Shillong, where there are fifty-nine and forty-nine stills respectively, there being a still almost in every house. Mawlai village supplies a great deal of the spirit which is drunk in Shillong, and from Marbisu spirit is carried for sale to various parts of the hills.
Between Shillong and Jowai there are forests of oak, the country being beautifully wooded. Chestnuts and birches are also fairly common. The low hills on the northern and western sides of the district are clad with dense forests of bamboo, of which there are many varieties. The Pandanus or screw-pine is to be met with on the southern slopes.
The most remarkable phenomenon of any kind in the country is undoubtedly the enormous quantity of rain which falls at Cherrapunji. Practically the whole of the rainfall occurs in the rains, i.e. from May to October. The remainder of the district is less rainy. The climate of the central plateau of the Shillong range is very salubrious, but the low hills in parts of the district are malarious.
As there is no Excise in the district, except within a five-mile radius of Shillong, liquor of both the above descriptions can be possessed and sold without restriction. According to some Khasi traditions the Khasis in ancient times used not to drink spirits, but confined themselves to rice-beer.
When a lyngdoh dies and his successor is appointed, certain rather elaborate ceremonies are observed in the Nongkrem raj of the Khyrim State. The funeral ceremonies of the old lyngdoh having been completed, the lyngdoh clan appoints his successor. The latter then, after performing his ablutions, proceeds, accompanied by the assembled members of the lyngdoh clan, to the top of the Shillong Peak.
On the northern side of the hills are two plateaux, one between 1,000 and 2,000 feet below the level of Shillong, and another at an elevation of about 2,000 feet above sea level. In general features all these plateaux are much alike, and consist of a succession of undulating downs, broken here and there by the valleys of the larger hill streams.
Probably the origin of the superstitious reverence with which U'lei Shillong is held by the Siems of Nongkrem and Mylliem is that their fabled ancestress "Ka Pah Syntiew," of whom an account will be found in the folk-lore section, took her origin from a rock not far from the Shillong Peak in the Nongkrem direction.
It is, however, a far cry from Shillong to Belgaum, and it may, perhaps, be thought more reasonable if we look for stones nearer at hand.
Kumta lyngngoh ki shnong-ki-tháw baroh bad y'm lah ba'n khang mano-mano ruh, ka bat la ka wait ha ka kti. Te nadúh kata ka por ki khot "ka ksháid-noh-ka-Likai." The Dingiei Hill. Dingiei Hill is one of the highest peaks in the Khasi country, resembling in height and size the Shillong "Peak" which lies opposite and to the north of it.
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