Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !

Updated: June 21, 2025


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.

The thlen has the power of reducing himself to the size of a thread, which renders it convenient for the nong-ri thlen, or thlen keeper, to place him for safety in an earthen pot, or in a basket which is kept in some secure place in the house.

Cherra, Nongkrem, and Mylliem, still regard the thlen, and the persons who are thought to keep thlens, with the very greatest awe, and that they will not utter even the names of the latter for fear some ill may befall them.

No one dares touch this money, for fear he should become possessed by ka Taroh, it will be observed that, as in the case of the thlen, the demon is believed to follow the property. Mr. Jenkins, in his interesting little work on "Life and Work in Khasia," gives a slightly different account of the superstition, in that he states that it is the sick person who is possessed by ka Taroh.

He proceeded to cut up the body, and sent pieces in every direction, with orders that the people were to eat them. Wherever the order was obeyed, the country became free of the thlen, but one small piece remained which no one would eat, and from this sprang a multitude of thlens, which infest the residents of Cherra and its neighbourhood.

The people advised U Suidnoh that he should go and give the "thlen" flesh every day, either goats, or pigs, or cattle. After he had done this for a long time, the "thlen" became tame, and was great friends with U Suidnoh. When both of them became very intimate thus, the children of men advised U Suidnoh to build a smelting house.

The murderer cuts off the tips of the hair of the victim with silver scissors, also the finger nails, and extracts from the nostril a little blood caught in a bamboo tube, and offers these to the thlen. The murderer, who is called u nongshohnoh, literally, "the beater," before he sets out on his unholy mission, drinks a special kind of liquor called, ka 'iad tang-shi-snem.

At last, one man, bolder than his fellows, took with him a herd of goats, and set himself down by the cave, and offered them one by one to the thlen. By degrees the monster became friendly, and learnt to open his mouth at a word from the man, to receive the lump of flesh which was then thrown in.

The nongshohnoh also sometimes contents himself with merely throwing stones at the victim, or with knocking at the door of his house at night, and then returns home, and, after invoking the thlen, informs the master that he has tried his best to secure him a prey, but has been unsuccessful.

The following account, the substance of which appeared in the Assam Gazette, in August, 1882, but to which considerable additions have been made, will illustrate this interesting superstition: "The tradition is that there was once in a cave near Cherrapunji, a gigantic snake, or thlen, who committed great havoc among men and animals.

Word Of The Day

ad-mirable

Others Looking