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Updated: June 4, 2025
When I was at Mawsynram, at the time of the appointment of a Siem, I witnessed a very pretty dance called ka shad lymmoh, performed by men who held the leafy branches of trees in their hands. This is most effective. Then followed a dance of some forty young girls, very well dressed, covered with the usual gold and coral beads and silver chains, and wearing the silver crown, or pansngiat.
In the Khasi Hills the god of small-pox is known under the name of u Siem ñiang thylliew. He is not, however, appeased in any way, the people calling on two other spirits, Thynrei and Sapa, to whom a fowl or a goat is offered. This section cannot be closed without some reference to the household gods of the Syntengs. The name of the woman was Ka Taben, and she was accompanied by her children.
There were two kinds of such ordeals. The first, called ka ngam ksih, was as follows: The two disputants in a case would each of them fix a spear under water in some deep pool. They would then dive and catch hold of the spear. The man who remained longest under water without returning to the surface was adjudged by the Siem and durbar to have won the case.
When she was about to build her house, it happened that she got married notwithstanding; she gave birth to a blind child, and died shortly afterwards. So the people called the village "Mawpun-ka-Rytiang," or, when abbreviated, "Mawpunkyrtiang." Te la don mynhyndái kawei ka briew kaba kyrteng ka Rytiang, ka jaid Siem.
The people say that now the Government and the Siem of Nongstoin have prohibited both of these methods of destroying game, they no longer employ them. But I came across a pitfall for deer not long ago in the neighbourhood of a village in the Lynngam country.
The Siems are appointed by an assembly, or durbar, which will be described later. The chiefs, having been thus chosen by the durbar, which is supposed by the people to be an institution of Divine origin, are styled, ki Siem u blei, or Siems of God. In most States the Siem is the religious as well as the secular head, e.g. in the Cherra State, where the Siem is also lyngdoh.
It is not possible to know the exact reason why the name of U Mawlong Siem was given to him, but at any rate it appears that the name arose from the fact that in olden days before the death of a Siem there used to be heard at "Mawlong Siem" a great noise of beating of drums.
Kumta ki la ia ngúh ki la ia dem ia kita ki khynnah bad hadíen kata ka la jia ha ki dohnúd kiba khráw-batri, ki tymmen-ki-san ha ka ri Shillong ban thung Siem ia ki namar ki khynnah ki long kiba la wan kha da ka briew kaba phylla shibún, kaba imat eh ba ka long ka khún u Blei Shillong.
They then travelled to other villages and obtained the consent of the lyngdohs of these villages to the formation of all their villages into a State, of which Nongspung became the capital, and over which U Sngi Shaflong, the son of Ka Jem, was appointed Siem by the five principal lyngdohs.
A similar survival of the ancient matriarchal religious system is the Siem sad, or priestess, at Mawsynram, who, on the appointment of a new Siem or chief, has to assist at certain sacrifices.
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