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They have the cloak and the head-wrapper just the same as the Khasi women. The Synteng striped cloth may be observed in the picture of the Synteng girl in the plate. Khasi women on festive occasions, such as the annual Nongkrem puja, do not cover the head. The hair is then decked with jewellery or with flowers; but on all ordinary occasions Khasi women cover the head.
Te u Siem Synteng ynda u la sngow ia kata ka ktin shi syndon u la phah ia la ki rangbah sha ka. Te ka la iathuh ia kiei-kiei baroh katba u Kyllong Raja u la phla. Te u Siem Synteng ynda u la tip ia kane baroh u la ai hukum ia ki briew ba ki'n khiar ban ioh ia u Kyllong Raja. Te ha kawei ka sngi ki la lap ia u ba u sum bad u la buh ia ki snir ha kata ka jaka ba u sum ba u mut ban sait ia ki.
The women are infinitely more decently clothed than Bengali coolie women, for instance; but their dress cannot be described as becoming or graceful, although they show taste as regards the blending of colours in their different garments. The dress of the Synteng women is a little different.
The word Jong in the list of tribes is a Synteng synonym of kur or jaid, and the Wár word khong, which will often be found in the names of the tribes of the twenty-five villages of the Khyrim State, is merely a corruption of jong or iong, the Synteng word for clan.
Another such survival is the High Priestess of Nongkrem, in the Synteng district, who “combines in her person sacerdotal and regal functions.” In this state the tradition runs that the first High Priestess was Ka Pah Synten, “the flower-lured one.” She was a beautiful maiden, who had her abode in a cave at Marai, near Nongkrem whence she was enticed by means of a flower.
This superstition often results in serious inconvenience to travellers between the Jaintia Hills and North Cachar, unless they have arranged for another batch of coolies to meet them on the Cachar side of the River Kopili, for the Synteng coolies throw down their loads at the river side, and nothing will induce them to cross the river.
In some clans the name of the ancestress survives, as, for instance, Kyngas houning, “the sweet one.” Ka Iaw shubde is the ancestress of the Synteng tribe, and it is curious to note that she is credited with having first introduced the art of smelting iron. She is also said to have founded a market in which she successfully traded in cattle. The Khasis, pp. 62, 64, 82.
Both Khasi and Synteng caps are generally of black cloth, having, as often as not, a thick coating of grease.
In the Linguistic Survey four dialects are dealt with, the standard literary form, founded on the language of Cherrapunji, the Pnar or Synteng, of Jowai, the War, spoken in the valleys on the southern face of the hills, and the Lyngngam, spoken in the tract adjacent to the Garos on the west. These things, no doubt, will come in time.
The above belief is perhaps a Synteng development of the Khasi thlen superstition. In the Jaintia Hills "the small-pox" is believed to be a goddess, and is reverenced accordingly.
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