CHAPTER I

The Khasis

By

Major P.R.T. Gurdon, I.A.

Deputy Commissioner Eastern Bengal and Assam

Commission, and Superintendent of

Ethnography in Assam.

With an Introduction by

Sir Charles Lyall, K.C.S.I.

(Published under the orders of the Government of

Eastern Bengal and Assam)

Illustrated

Preface

This book is an attempt to give a systematic account of the Khasi

people, their manners and customs, their ethnological affinities,

their laws and institutions, their religious beliefs, their folk-lore,

their theories as to their origin, and their language.

This account would perhaps have assumed a more elaborate and ambitious

form were it not that the author has been able to give to it only

the scanty leisure of a busy district officer. He has been somewhat

hampered by the fact that his work forms part of a series of official

publications issued at the expense of the Government of Eastern Bengal

and Assam, and that it had to be completed within a prescribed period

of time.

The author gladly takes this opportunity to record his grateful

thanks to many kind friends who have helped him either with actual

contributions to his material, or with not less valued suggestions

and criticisms. The arrangement of the subjects discussed is due to

Sir Bampfylde Fuller, lately Lieutenant-Governor of the Province,

whose kindly interest in the Khasis will long be remembered by them

with affectionate gratitude. The Introduction is from the accomplished

pen of Sir Charles Lyall, to whom the author is also indebted for much

other help and encouragement. It is now many years since Sir Charles

Lyall served in Assam, but his continued regard for the Khasi people

bears eloquent testimony to the attractiveness of their character, and

to the charm which the homely beauty of their native hills exercises

over the minds of all who have had the good fortune to know them.

To Mr. N. L. Hallward thanks are due for the revision of the proof

sheets, and to the Revd. H. P. Knapton for the large share he took in

the preparation of the index. The section dealing with folk-lore could

hardly have been written but for the generosity of the Revd. Doctor

Roberts, of the Welsh Calvinistic Mission in the Khasi and Jaintia

Hills, in placing at the author's disposal his collection of the

legends current among the people. Many others have helped, but the

following names may be specially mentioned, viz.: Mr. J. B. Shadwell,

Mr. S. E. Rita, the Revd. C. H. Jenkins, Mr. C. Shadwell, Mr. Dohory

Ropmay, U Hormu Roy Diengdoh, U Rai Mohan Diengdoh, U Job Solomon,

U Suttra Singh Bordoloi, U San Mawthoh, U Hajam Kishore Singh,

U Nissor Singh, and U Sabor Roy.

A bibliography of the Khasis, which the author has attempted to make

as complete as possible, has been added. The coloured plates, with

one exception, viz., that taken from a sketch by the late Colonel

Woodthorpe, have been reproduced from the pictures of Miss Eirene

Scott-O'Connor (Mrs. Philip Rogers). The reproductions are the work of

Messrs W. Griggs and Sons, as are also the monochromes from photographs

by Mrs. Muriel, Messrs. Ghosal Brothers, and the author. Lastly, the

author wishes to express his thanks to Srijut Jagat Chandra Goswami,

his painstaking assistant, for his care in arranging the author's

somewhat voluminous records, and for his work generally in connection

with this monograph.

P. R. G.

Bibliography

Agricultural Bulletin No. 5 of 1898.

Allen, B. C.--Assam Census Report, 1901.

Allen, W. J.--Report on the Khasi and Jaintia Hill Territory, 1868.

Aymonier, Monsieur--"Le Cambodge."

Bivar, Colonel H. S.--Administration Report on the Khasi and Jaintia

Hills District of 1876.

Buchanan Hamilton--"Eastern India." Edited by Montgomery Martin

Dalton, Colonel E. T.--Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal.

Gait, E. A.--Human Sacrifices in Assam, vol. i., J.A.S.B. of 1898.

Grierson, Doctor G. A.--"Linguistic Survey of India," vol. ii.

Henniker, F. C.--Monograph on gold and silver wares in Assam.

Hooker, Sir Joseph--Himalayan Journals.

Hunter, Sir William--Statistical Account of Assam.

Jeebon Roy, U.--_Ka Niam Khasi_

Jenkins, The Rev. Mr.--"Life and Work in Khasia."

_Khasi Mynta_--A monthly journal published at Shillong in the Khasi

language.

Kuhn, Professor E.--_Über Herkunft und Sprache der

transgangetischen Völker_. 1883

Kuhn, Professor E.--_Beiträge zur Sprachenkunde

Hinterindiens_. 1889.

Lindsay, Lord--"Lives of the Lindsays."

Logan, J. R A--series of papers on the Ethnology of the Indo-Pacific

Islands which appeared in the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago."

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander.--Account of the North-Eastern Frontier

Mills, A. J. M.--Report on the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, 1853

Nissor Singh, U--Hints on the study of the Khasi language.

Nissor Singh, U--Khasi-English dictionary.

Oldham, Thomas--On the geological structure of a portion of the Khasi

Hills, Bengal.

Oldham, Thomas--Geology of the Khasi Hills.

Peal, S. E.--On some traces of the Kol-Mon-Anam in the Eastern

Naga Hills.

Pryse, Rev. W.--Introduction to the Khasis language, comprising a

grammar, selections for reading, and a vocabulary.

Records of the Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat.

Roberts, The Rev. H.--Khasi grammar.

Robinson--Assam.

Scott, Sir George--Upper Burma Gazetteer.

Shadwell, J. B.--Notes on the Khasis.

Stack E.--Notes on silk in Assam.

Waddell, Colonel--Account of the Assam tribes.J.A S.B.

Ward, Sir William--Introduction to the Assam Land Revenue Manual.

Weinberg, E.--Report on Excise in Assam.

Yule, Sir Henry--Notes on the Khasi Hills and people.

Contents

Introduction xv-xxvii

Section I.--General.

Habitat 1-2

Appearance 2-3

Physical and General Characteristics 3-6

Geographical Distribution 6-10

Origin 10-11

Affinities 11-18

Dress 18-21

Tattooing 21

Jewellery 22-23

Weapons 23-26

Section II.--Domestic Life.

Occupation 26-28

Apiculture 28-30

Houses 30-33

Villages 33-35

Furniture and Household Utensils 36-38

Musical Instruments 38-39

Agriculture 39-43

Crops 43-48

Hunting 48-49

Fishing 49-51

Food 51-52

Drink 52-54

Games 54-57

Manufactures 57-61

Section III.--Laws and Customs.

Tribal Organization 62-66

State Organization 66-75

Marriage 76-79

Divorce 79-81

Inheritance 82-85

Adoption 85-86

Tenure of Land and Laws regarding Land 86-91

Laws regarding other Property 91

Decision of Disputes 91-97

War 97-98

Human Sacrifices 98-104

Section IV.--Religion.

General Character of Popular Beliefs 105-109

Ancestor Worship 109-113

Worship of Natural Forces and of Deities 114-116

Religious Rites and Sacrifices, Divination 116-120

Priesthood 120-124

Ceremonies and Customs attending Birth and Naming of Children

124-127

Marriage 127-132

Ceremonies attending Death 132-139

Disposal of the Dead 140-144

Khasi Memorial Stones 144-154

Festivities, Domestic and Tribal 154-157

Genna 158-159

Section V.--Folk-Lore.

Folk-tales 160-187

Section VI.--Miscellaneous.

Teknonomy 188

Khasi Method of Calculating Time 188-190

The Lynngams 190-197

Section VII.--Language 198-215

Appendices.

A--Exogamous Clans in the Cherra State 216-217

B--Exogamous Clans in the Khyrim State 218-220

C--Divination by Egg-Breaking 221-222

Index 223-227

Introduction

In 1908 Sir Bampfylde Fuller, then Chief Commissioner of Amman,

proposed and the Government of India sanctioned, the preparation

of a series of monographs on the more important tribes and castes

of the Province, of which this volume is the first. They were to be

undertaken by writers who had special and intimate experience of the

races to be described, the accounts of earlier observers being at the

same time studied and incorporated; a uniform scheme of treatment was

laid down which was to be adhered to in each monograph, and certain

limits of size were prescribed.

Major Gurdon, the author of the following pages, who is also, as

Superintendent of Ethnography in Assam, editor of the whole series,

has enjoyed a long and close acquaintance with the Khasi race,

whose institutions he has here undertaken to describe. Thoroughly

familiar with their language, he has for three years been in charge

as Deputy-Commissioner of the district where they dwell, continually

moving among them, and visiting every part of the beautiful region

which is called by their name. The administration of the Khasi and

Jaintia Hills is an exceptionally interesting field of official

responsibility. About half of the district, including the country

around the capital, Shillong, is outside the limits of British India,

consisting of a collection of small states in political relations,

regulated by treaty with the Government of India, which enjoy almost

complete autonomy in the management of their local affairs. In

the remainder, called the Jaintia Hills, which became British in

1835, it has been the wise policy of the Government to maintain

the indigenous system of administration through officers named

_dolois_, who preside over large areas of country with very little

interference. All the British portion of the hills is what is called a

"Scheduled District" under Acts XIV and XV of 1874, and legislation

which may be inappropriate to the conditions of the people can be,

and is, excluded from operation within it. In these circumstances the

administration is carried on in a manner well calculated to win the

confidence and attachment of the people, who have to hear few of the

burdens which press upon the population elsewhere, and, with the peace

and protection guaranteed by British rule, are able to develop their

institutions upon indigenous lines. It is now more than forty years

since any military operations have been necessary within the hills,

and the advance of the district in prosperity and civilization during

the last half-century has been very striking.

The first contact between the British and the inhabitants of the

Khasi Hills followed upon the acquisition by the East India Company,

in consequence of the grant of the _Diwani_ of Bengal in 1765, of the

district of Sylhet. The Khasis were our neighbours on the north of

that district, and to the north-east was the State of Jaintia, [1]

ruled over by a chief of Khasi lineage, whose capital, Jaintiapur, was

situated in the plain between the Surma river and the hills. Along this

frontier, the Khasis, though not averse from trade, and in possession

of the quarries which furnished the chief supply of lime to deltaic

Bengal, were also known as troublesome marauders, whose raids were

a terror to the inhabitants of the plains. Captain R.B. Pemberton,

in his Report on the Eastern Frontier (1835), mentions [2] an attack

on Jaintia by a force under Major Henniker in 1774, supposed to have

been made in retaliation for aggression by the Raja in Sylhet; and

Robert Lindsay, who was Resident and Collector of Sylhet about 1778,

has an interesting account of the hill tribes and the Raja of Jaintia

in the lively narrative embodied in the "Lives of the Lindsays." [3]

Lindsay, who made a large fortune by working the lime quarries and thus

converting into cash the millions of cowries in which the land-revenue

of Sylhet was paid, appears to have imagined that the Khasis, whom

he calls "a tribe of independent Tartars," were in direct relations

with China, and imported thence the silk cloths [4] which they brought

down for sale in the Sylhet markets. A line of forts was established

along the foot of the hills to hold the mountaineers in check, and

a Regulation, No. 1 of 1799, was passed declaring freedom of trade

between them and Sylhet, but prohibiting the supply to them of arms

and ammunition, and forbidding any one to pass the Company's frontier

towards the hills with arms in his hands.

The outbreak of the first Burma War, in 1824, brought us into closer

relations with the Raja of Jaintia, and in April of that year Mr. David

Scott, the Governor-General's Agent on the frontier, marched through

his territory from Sylhet to Assam, emerging at Raha on the Kalang

river, in what is now the Nowgong district. This was the first occasion

on which Europeans had entered the hill territory of the Khasi tribes,

and the account of the march, quoted in Pemberton's Report, [5] is the

earliest authentic information which we possess of the institutions

of the Khasi race. Dr. Buchanan-Hamilton, who spent several years at

the beginning of the 19th Century in collecting information regarding

the people of Eastern India, during which he lived for some time

at Goalpara in the Brahmaputra Valley, confused the Khasis with the

Garos, and his descriptions apply only to the latter people. The name

Garo, however, is still used by the inhabitants of Kamrup in speaking

of their Khasi neighbours to the South, and Hamilton only followed

the local usage. In 1826 Mr. David Scott, after the expulsion of the

Burmese from Assam and the occupation of that province by the Company,

entered the Khasi Hills in order to negotiate for the construction of

a road through the territory of the Khasi Siem or Chief of Nongkhlaw,

which should unite Sylhet with Gauhati. A treaty was concluded with

the chief, and the construction of the road began. At Cherrapunji

Mr. Scott built for himself a house on the plateau which, two years

later, was acquired from the Siem by exchange for land in the plains,

as the site of a sanitarium. [6] Everything seemed to promise well,

when the peace was suddenly broken by an attack made, in April 1829,

by the people of Nongkhlaw on the survey party engaged in laying

out the road, resulting in the massacre of two British officers and

between fifty and sixty natives. This led to a general confederacy of

most or the neighbouring chiefs to resist the British, and a long and

harassing war, which was not brought to a close till 1833. Cherrapunji

then became the headquarters of the Sylhet Light Infantry, whose

commandant was placed in political charge of the district, including

the former dominions in the hills of the Raja of Jaintia, which he

voluntarily relinquished in 1835 on the confiscation of his territory

in the plains.

Cherrapunji, celebrated as the place which has the greatest measured

rainfall on the globe, became a popular station, and the discovery

of coal there, and at several other places in the hills, attracted

to it many visitors, some of whom published accounts of the country

and people. The first detailed description was apparently that of the

Rev. W. Lish, a Baptist missionary, which appeared in a missionary

journal in 1838. In 1840 Capt. Fisher, an officer of the Survey

Department, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal

[7] an account which showed that the leading characteristics of the

Khasi race had already been apprehended; he mentions the prevalence of

matriarchy or mother-kinship, notes the absence of polyandry, except

in so far as its place was taken by facile divorce, describes the

religion as a worship of gods of valleys and hills, draws attention to

the system of augury used to ascertain the will of the gods, and gives

an account of the remarkable megalithic monuments which everywhere

stud the higher plateaus. He also recognizes the fact that the Khasis

as a race are totally distinct from the neighbouring hill tribes. In

1841 Mr. W. Robinson, Inspector of Schools in Assam, included an

account of the Khasis in a volume on that province which was printed

at Calcutta. In 1844 Lieut. Yule (afterwards Sir Henry Yule) published

in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society [8] a much more detailed

description of the hills and their inhabitants than had been given

by Fisher. This formed the basis of many subsequent descriptions, the

best known of which is the attractive account contained in the second

volume of Sir Joseph Hooker's _Himalayan Journals_ [9] published

in London in 1854. Sir Joseph visited Cherrapunji in June 1850,

and stayed in the hills until the middle of the following November.

Meanwhile the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission, originally

located at Sylhet, had extended their operations to Cherrapunji,

and in 1842 established a branch there. They applied themselves to

the study of the Khasi language, for which, after a trial of the

Bengali, they resolved to adopt the Roman character. Their system of

expressing the sounds of Khasi has since that time continued in use,

and after sixty years' prescription it would be difficult to make a

change. Their Welsh nationality led them to use the vowel _y_ for the

obscure sound represented elsewhere in India by a short _a_ (the _u_

in the English _but_), and for the consonantal _y_ to substitute the

vowel _i : w_ is also used as a vowel, but only in diphthongs (_aw,

ew, iw, ow_); in other respects the system agrees fairly well with

the standard adopted elsewhere. Primers for the study of the language

were printed at Calcutta in 1846 and 1852, and in 1855 appeared

the excellent "Introduction to the Khasia language, comprising a

grammar, selections for reading, and a Khasi-English vocabulary," of

the Rev. W. Pryse. There now exists a somewhat extensive literature

in Khasi, both religious and secular. An exhaustive grammar, by the

Rev. H. Roberts, was published in Trübner's series of "Simplified

Grammars" in 1891, and there are dictionaries, English-Khasi (1875}

and Khasi-English (1906), besides many other aids to the study of the

language which need not be mentioned here. It is recognized by the

Calcutta University as sufficiently cultivated to be offered for the

examinations of that body. Two monthly periodicals are published in

it at Shillong, to which place the headquarters of the district were

removed from Cherrapunji in 1864, and which has been the permanent

seat of the Assam Government since the Province was separated from

Bengal in 1874.

The isolation of the Khasi race, in the midst of a great encircling

population all of whom belong to the Tibeto-Burman stock, and the

remarkable features presented by their language and institutions,

soon attracted the attention of comparative philologists and

ethnologists. An account of their researches will be found in

Dr. Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, vol. ii. Here it will

be sufficient to mention the important work of Mr. J. R. Logan, who,

in a series of papers published at Singapore between 1850 and 1857 in

the _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_ (of which he was the editor),

demonstrated the relationship which exists between the Khasis and

certain peoples of Further India, the chief representatives of whom are

the Mons or Talaings of Pegu and Tenasserim, the Khmers of Cambodia,

and the majority of the inhabitants of Annam. He was even able, through

the means of vocabularies furnished to him by the late Bishop Bigandet,

to discover the nearest kinsmen of the Khasis in the Palaungs, a tribe

inhabiting one of the Shan States to the north-east of Mandalay on the

middle Salween. With the progress of research it became apparent that

the Mon-Khmer group of Indo-China thus constituted, to which the Khasis

belong, was in some way connected with the large linguistic family

in the Indian Peninsula once called Kolarian, but now more generally

known as _Munda_, who inhabit the hilly region of Chutia Nagpur

and parts of the Satpura range in the Central Provinces. Of these

tribes the principal are the Santhals, the Mundas, and the Korkus. In

physical characters they differ greatly from the Indo-Chinese Khasis,

but the points of resemblance in their languages and in some of their

institutions cannot be denied; and the exact nature of the relation

between them is as yet one of the unsolved problems of ethnology.

The work of Logan was carried further by Prof. Ernst Kuhn, of Munich,

who in 1888 and 1889 published important contributions to our knowledge

of the languages and peoples of Further India. More recently our

acquaintance with the phonology of Khasi and its relatives has been

still further advanced by the labours of Pater W. Schmidt, of Vienna,

whose latest work, _Die Mon-Khmer Völker, ein Bindeglied zwischen

Völkern Zentralasiens und Austronesiens_ (Braunschweig, 1906),

has established the relationship of Khasi not only to the Mon-Khmer

languages, but also to Nicobarese and several dialects spoken by wild

tribes in the Malay Peninsula.

There still remains much to be done before the speech of the Khasi

nation can be considered to have been thoroughly investigated. 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. Major Gurdon (p. 203) mentions a fifth, that

of Jirang or Mynnar, spoken in the extreme north, and there may be

others. A great desideratum for linguistic purposes is a more adequate

method of recording sounds, and especially differences of tone, than

that adopted for the standard speech, which though sufficient for

practical purposes, does not accurately represent either the quantity

or the quality of the vowels, and leaves something to be desired

as regards the consonants (especially those only faintly sounded or

suppressed). These things, no doubt, will come in time. The immense

advance which has been made in education by the Khasis during the last

half-century has enabled some among them to appreciate the interesting

field for exploration and study which their own country and people

afford; and there is reason to hope that with European guidance the

work of record will progress by the agency of indigenous students.

It remains to summarize briefly the principal distinctive features of

this vigorous and sturdy race, who have preserved their independence

and their ancestral institutions through many centuries in the face

of the attractions offered by the alien forms of culture around them.

In the first place, their social organization presents one of the

most perfect examples still surviving of matriarchal institutions,

carried out with a logic and thoroughness which, to those accustomed

to regard the status and authority of the father as the foundation

of society, are exceedingly remarkable. Not only is the mother

the head and source, and only bond of union, of the family: in the

most primitive part of the hills, the Synteng country, she is the

only owner of real property, and through her alone is inheritance

transmitted. The father has no kinship with his children, who belong

to their mother's clan; what he earns goes to his own matriarchal

stock, and at his death his bones are deposited in the cromlech of his

mother's kin. In Jowai he neither lives nor eats in his wife's house,

but visits it only after dark (p. 76). In the veneration of ancestors,

which is the foundation of the tribal piety, the primal ancestress

(_Ka Iawbei_) and her brother are the only persons regarded. The

flat memorial stones set up to perpetuate the memory of the dead are

called after the woman who represents the clan (_maw kynthei_ p. 150),

and the standing stones ranged behind them are dedicated to the male

kinsmen on the mother's side.

In harmony with this scheme of ancestor worship, the other spirits

to whom propitiation is offered are mainly female, though here male

personages also figure (pp. 106-109). The powers of sickness and

death are all female, and these are those most frequently worshipped

(p. 107). The two protectors of the household are goddesses (p. 112),

though with them is also revered the first father of the clan,

_U Thawlang_.

Priestesses assist at all sacrifices, and the male officiants are

only their deputies (p. 121); in one important state, Khyrim, the

High Priestess and actual head of the State is a woman, who combines

in her person sacerdotal and regal functions (p. 70).

The Khasi language, so far as known, is the only member of the

Mon-Khmer family which possesses a grammatical gender, distinguishing

all nouns as masculine and feminine; and here also the feminine

nouns immensely preponderate (p. 206). The pronouns of the second

(me, pha) and third person (u, ka) have separate forms for the sexes

in the singular, but in the plural only one is used (phi, ki), and

this is the plural form of the feminine singular.

It may perhaps be ascribed to the pre-eminence accorded by the

Khasis to the female sex that successive censuses have shown that the

women of this race considerably exceed the men in number. According

to the census of 1901, there are 1,118 females to every 1,000 male

Khasis. This excess, however, is surpassed by that of the Lushais,

1,191 to 1,000, and it may possibly be due to the greater risks to life

encountered by the men, who venture far into the plains as traders and

porters, while the women stay at home. Habits of intemperance, which

are confined to the male sex, may also explain a greater mortality

among them.

It would be interesting to investigate the effect on reproduction

of the system of matriarchy which governs Khasi family life. The

increase of the race is very slow. In the census of 1891 there were

enumerated only 117 children under 5 to every hundred married women

between 15 and 40, and in 1901 this number fell to 108. It has been

suggested that the independence of the wife, and the facilities which

exist for divorce, lead to restrictions upon child-bearing, and thus

keep the population stationary. The question might with advantage be

examined at the census of 1911.

The next characteristic of the Khasis which marks them out for special

notice is their method of divination for ascertaining the causes of

misfortune and the remedies to be applied. All forms of animistic

religion make it their chief business to avert the wrath of the

gods, to which calamities of all kinds--sickness, storm, murrain,

loss of harvest--are ascribed, by some kind of propitiation; and in

this the Khasis are not singular. But it is somewhat surprising to

find among them the identical method of _extispicium_ which was in use

among the Romans, as well as an analogous development in the shape of

egg-breaking, fully described by Major Gurdon (p. 221), which seems

to have been known to diviners in ancient Hellas. [10] This method has

(with much else in Khasi practice) been adopted by the former subjects

of the Khasis, the Mikirs; but it does not appear to be prevalent

among any other of the animistic tribes within the boundaries of India.

The third remarkable feature of Khasi usage is the custom, which

prevails to this day, of setting up great memorials of rough stone,

of the same style and character as the _menhirs_ and _cromlechs_ which

are found in Western Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. It

is very surprising to a visitor, unprepared for the sight by previous

information, to find himself on arrival at the plateau in the midst of

great groups of standing and table stones exactly like those he may

have seen in Brittany, the Channel Islands, the south of England,

or the Western Isles. Unfortunately the great earthquake of June

1897 overthrew many of the finest of these megalithic monuments;

but several still remain, and of these Major Gurdon has given an

excellent description (pp. 144 sqq.), with an explanation of the

different forms which they assume and the objects with which they

are erected. Other races in India besides the Khasis set up stone

memorials; but none, perhaps, to the same extent or with the same

systematic purpose and arrangement.

In conclusion, I have only to commend this work to the consideration

of all interested in the accurate and detailed description of primitive

custom. I lived myself for many years among the Khasis, and endeavoured

to find out what I could about them; but much of what Major Gurdon

records is new to me, though the book generally agrees with what I

was able to gather of their institutions and characteristics. It is,

I think, an excellent example of research, and well fitted to stand

at the head of a series which may be expected to make an important

contribution to the data of anthropology.

C. J. Lyall.

_November_, 1906.

THE KHASIS

CHAPTER I

General

Habitat.

The Khasis reside in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district of

Assam. They number 176,614 souls, which total is made up of:--

Khasis 107,515

Syntengs 47,883

Christian Khasis 17,125

Khasis inhabiting other districts 4,091

176,614

The Khasi and Jaintia Hills district is situated between 25° 1' and 26°

5' North Latitude, and between 90° 47' and 92° 52' East Longitude. It

contains an area of 6,157 square miles, with a total population at

the Census of 1901 of 202,250 souls. In addition to the Khasis there

are some members of Bodo tribes inhabiting parts of the district.

The Lynngam tribe appears to have been reckoned in 1901 as Khasi,

there being no separate record at the last Census of these people.

The district is split up into two divisions, the Khasi Hills proper

and the Jaintia Hills. The Khasi Hills form the western portion of

the district and the Jaintia Hills the eastern. The Khasis inhabit

the Khasi Hills proper, and the Syntengs, or Pnars, the Jaintia

Hills. The latter hills take their name from the Rajas of Jaintia, the

former rulers of this part of the country, who had as their capital

Jaintiapur, a place situated at the foot of the Jaintia Hills on the

southern side, which now falls within the boundaries of the Sylhet

district. The Lynngams inhabit the western portion of the Khasi Hills

proper. A line drawn north and south through the village of Nongstoin

may be said to form their eastern boundary, and the Kamrup and Sylhet

districts their northern and southern boundaries, respectively. The

people known as _Bhois_ in these hills, who are many of them really

Mikirs, live in the low hills to the north and north-east of the

district, the term "Bhoi" being a territorial name rather than

tribal. The eastern boundary of the Lynngam country may be said to

form their north-western boundary. The Wárs inhabit the precipitous

slopes and deep valleys to the south of the district. Their country

extends along the entire southern boundary of the district to the

Jadukata, or Kenchi-iong, river where the Lynngam territory may be

said to commence towards the south. There are some Hadem colonies

in the extreme eastern portions of the Jaintia Hills. It is these

colonies which are sometimes referred to by other writers as "Kuki

Colonies." They are settlers from the North Cachar Sub-division of the

Cachar district within recent years. It is possible that the title

Hadem may have some connection with _Hidimba_, the ancient name for

the North Cachar Hills.

Appearance.

The colour of the Khasi skin may be described as being usually

brown, varying from dark to a light yellowish brown, according to

locality. The complexion of the people who inhabit the uplands is of

a somewhat lighter shade, and many of the women, especially those who

live at Nongkrem, Laitlyngkot, Mawphlang, and other villages of the

surrounding high plateaux possess that pretty gipsy complexion that

is seen in the South of Europe amongst the peasants. The people of

Cherrapunji village are specially fair. The Syntengs of the Jaintia

Hills are darker than the Khasi uplanders. The Wárs who live in the

low valleys are frequently more swarthy than the Khasis. The Bhois

have the flabby-looking yellow skin of the Mikirs, and the Lynngams

are darker than the Khakis. The Lynngams are probably the darkest

complexioned people in the hills, and if one met them in the plains

one would not be able to distinguish them from the ordinary Kachari or

Rabha. The nose in the Khasi is somewhat depressed, the nostrils being

often large and prominent. The forehead is broad and the space between

the eyes is often considerable. The skull may be said to be almost

brachy-cephalic, the average cephalic index of 77 Khasi subjects,

measured by Col. Waddell and Major Hare, I.M.S., being as high as 77.3

and 77.9, respectively. According to these data the Khasis are more

brachy-cephalic than the Aryans, whose measurements appear in Crooke's

tables, more brachy-cephalic than the 100 Mundas whose measurements

appear in Risley's tables, more brachy-cephalic than the Dravidians,

but less brachy-cephalic than the Burmans, whose measurements also

appear in Crooke's tables. It would be interesting to compare some head

measurements of Khasis with Japanese, but unfortunately the necessary

data are not available in the case of the latter people. The Khasi

head may be styled sub-brachy-cephalic. Eyes are of medium size,

in colour black or brown. In the Jaintia Hills hazel eyes are not

uncommon, especially amongst females. Eyelids are somewhat obliquely

set, but not so acutely as in the Chinese and some other Mongols. Jaws

frequently are prognathous, mouth large, with sometimes rather thick

lips. Hair black, straight, and worn long, the hair of people who

adopt the old style being caught up in a knot at the back. Some

males cut the hair short with the exception of a single lock at the

back, which is called _u niuhtrong_ or _u niuh-' iawbei_ (i.e. the

grandmother's lock.) The forepart of the head is often shaven. It

is quite the exception to see a beard, although the moustache is not

infrequently worn. The Lynngams pull out the hairs of the moustache

with the exception of a few hairs an either side of the upper lip.

Physical and General Characteristics

The Khasis are usually short in stature, with bodies well nourished,

and the males are extremely muscular. The trunk is long in proportion

to the rest of the body, and broad at the waist; calves are very

highly developed. The women, when young are comely, of a buxom type,

and, like the men, with highly-developed calves, the latter always

being considered a beauty. The children are frequently remarkably

pretty. Khasis carry very heavy burdens, it being the custom for the

coolie of the country to carry a maund, or 82 lbs. weight, or even

more occasionally, on his back, the load being fixed by means of a

cane band which is worn across the forehead; women carry almost as

heavy loads as the men. The coolies, both male and female, commonly

do the journey between Cherrapunji and Shillong, or between Shillong

and Jowai, in one day, carrying the heavy loads above mentioned. Each

of the above journeys is some thirty miles. They carry their great

loads of rice and salt from Therria to Cherrapunji, an ascent of about

4,000 feet in some three to four miles, in the day. The Khasis are

probably the best porters in the north of India, and have frequently

been requisitioned for transport purposes on military expeditions.

The people are cheerful in disposition, and are light-hearted by

nature, and, unlike the plains people, seem to thoroughly appreciate

a joke. It is pleasant to hear on the road down to Theriaghat from

Cherrapunji, in the early morning the whole hillside resounding with

the scraps of song and peals of laughter of the coolies, as they run

nimbly down the short cuts on their way to market. The women are

specially cheerful, and pass the time of day and bandy jokes with

passers-by with quite an absence of reserve. The Khasis are certainly

more industrious than the Assamese, are generally good-tempered,

but are occasionally prone to sudden outbursts of anger, accompanied

by violence. They are fond of music, and rapidly learn the hymn

tunes which are taught them by the Welsh missionaries. Khasis are

devoted to their offspring, and the women make excellent nurses for

European children, frequently becoming much attached to their little

charges. The people, like the Japanese, are fond of nature. A Khasi

loves a day out in the woods, where he thoroughly enjoys himself. If

he does not go out shooting or fishing, he is content to sit still

and contemplate nature. He has a separate name for each of the

commoner birds and flowers. He also has names for many butterflies

and moths. These are traits which are not found usually in the people

of India. He is not above manual labour, and even the Khasi clerk

in the Government offices is quite ready to take his turn at the

hoe in his potato garden. The men make excellent stonemasons and

carpenters, and are ready to learn fancy carpentry and mechanical

work. They are inveterate chewers of _supari_ and the pan leaf (when

they can get the latter), both men, women, and children; distances in

the interior being often measured by the number of betel-nuts that

are usually chewed on a journey. They are not addicted usually to

the use of opium or other intoxicating drugs. They are, however,

hard drinkers, and consume large quantities of spirit distilled

from rice or millet. Rice beer is also manufactured; this is used

not only as a beverage, but also for ceremonial purposes. Spirit

drinking is confined more to the inhabitants of the high plateaux

and to the people of the Wár country, the Bhois and Lynngams being

content to partake of rice beer. The Mikirs who inhabit what is

known as the "Bhoi" country, lying to the north of the district,

consume a good deal of opium, but it must be remembered that they

reside in a malarious _terai_ country, and that the use of opium,

or same other prophylactic, is probably beneficial as a preventive

of fever. The Khasis, like other people of Indo-Chinese origin,

are much addicted to gambling. The people, and especially those who

inhabit the Wár country, are fond of litigation. Col. Bivar remarks,

"As regards truthfulness the people do not excel, for they rarely

speak the truth unless to suit their own interests." Col. Bivar might

have confined this observation to the people who live in the larger

centres of population, or who have been much in contact with the

denizens of the plains. The inhabitants of the far interior are, as

a rule, simple and straightforward people, and are quite as truthful

and honest as peasants one meets in other countries. My impression

is that the Khasis are not less truthful certainly than other Indian

communities. McCosh, writing in 1837, speaks well of the Khasis. The

following is his opinion of them:--"They are a powerful, athletic

race of men, rather below the middle size, with a manliness of gait

and demeanour. They are fond of their mountains, and look down with

contempt upon the degenerate race of the plains, jealous of their

power, brave in action, and have an aversion to falsehood."

Khasis of the interior who have adopted Christianity are generally

cleaner in their persons than the non-Christians, and their women dress

better than the latter and have an air of self-respect about them. The

houses in a Christian village are also far superior, especially where

there are resident European missionaries. Khasis who have become

Christians often take to religion with much earnestness (witness the

recent religious revival in these hills, which is estimated by the

Welsh missionaries to have added between 4,000 and 5,000 converts

to Christianity), and are model Sabbatarians, it being a pleasing

sight to see men, women, and children trooping to church on a Sunday

dressed in their best, and with quite the Sunday expression on their

faces one sees in England. It is a pleasure to hear the sound of the

distant church bell on the hill-side on a Sunday evening, soon to be

succeeded by the beautiful Welsh hymn tunes which, when wafted across

the valleys, carry one's thoughts far away. The Welsh missionaries

have done, and continue to do, an immense amount of good amongst these

people. It would be an evil day for the Khasis if anything should

occur to arrest the progress of the mission work in the Khasi Hills.

Geographical Distribution.

The Khasis inhabit the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, although there are a

few Khasi settlers in the neighbouring plains districts. The Census

Report of 1901 gives the following figures of Khasi residents in

the plains:

Cachar 333

Sylbet 3,083

Goalpara 4

Kamrup 191

Darrong 90

Nowgong 29

Sibnagar 62

Lakhimpur 22

Lushai Hills 77

North Cachar 32

Naga Hills 82

Garo Hills 117

Manipur 69

Total 4,091 [11]

The following information regarding the general aspect of the Khasi

and Jaintia Hills district, with some additions, is derived from Sir

William Hunter's Statistical Account of Assam. The district consists

almost entirely of hills, only a very small portion lying in the

plains. The slope of the hills on the southern side is very steep

until a table-land is met with at an elevation of about 4,000 feet at

Cherrapunji. Higher up there is another plateau at Mawphlang. This is

the highest portion of the hills, some villages being found at as high

an elevation as close on 6,000 feet above see level. Fifteen miles to

the east of Mawphlang, and in the same range, is situated the civil

station of Shillong, at an average elevation of about 4,900 feet. The

elevation of the Shillong Peak, the highest hill in the district, is

6,450 feet above sea level. 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. In the higher ranges, where the hills have

been denuded of forest, the country is covered with short grass, which

becomes longer and more rank in the lower elevations. This denudation

of forest has been largely due to the wood being used by the Khasis for

fuel for iron smelting in days gone by. The Government, however, has

taken steps to protect the remaining forests from further spoliation. A

remarkable feature is the presence of numerous sacred groves situated

generally just below the brows of the hills. In these woods are to

be found principally oak and rhododendron trees. The fir-tree (Pinus

Khasia) is first met with on the road from Gauhati to Shillong, at

Umsning, at an elevation of about 2,500 feet. In the neighbourhood

of Shillong the fir grows profusely, but the finest fir-trees are

to be seen in the Jowai sub-division. In the vicinity of Nongpoh is

observed the beautiful _nahor_ or _nageswar_, the iron-wood tree. The

latter is also to be found on the southern slopes of the hills in

the Jowai sub-division. There are some _sal_ forests to the west and

south of Nongpoh, where the _sal_ trees are almost as large as those

to be found in the Garo 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. Regarding the geological formation

of the hills, I extract a few general remarks from the Physical and

Political Geography of Assam. The Shillong plateau consists of a great

mass of gneiss, bare on the northern border, where it is broken into

hills, for the most part low and very irregular in outline, with

numerous outliers in the Lower Assam Valley, even close up to the

Himalayas. In the central region the gneiss is covered by transition

or sub-metamorphic rocks, consisting of a strong band of quartzites

overlying a mass of earthy schists. In the very centre of the range,

where the table-land attains its highest elevation, great masses of

intrusive diorite and granite occur; and the latter is found in dykes

piercing the gneiss and sub-metamorphic series throughout the southern

half of the boundary of the plains. To the south, in contact with

the gneiss and sub-metamorphics is a great volcanic outburst of trap,

which is stratified, and is brought to the surface with the general

rise of elevation along the face of the hills between Shella and

Theriaghat south of Cherrapunji. This has been described as the "Sylhet

trap." South of the main axis of this metamorphic and volcanic mass are

to be found strata of two well defined series: (1) the cretaceous,

and (2) nummulitic. The cretaceous contains several important

coalfields. The nummulitic series, which overlies the cretaceous,

attains a thickness of 900 feet in the Theria river, consisting of

alternating strata of compact limestones and sandstones. It is at

the exposure of these rocks on their downward dip from the edge of

the plateau that are situated the extensive limestone quarries of

the Khasi Hills. There are numerous limestone caves and underground

water-courses on the southern face of the hills. This series contains

coal-beds, e.g. the Cherrafield and that at Lakadong in the Jaintia

Hills. Some description of the remarkable Kyllang Rock may not be out

of place. Sir Joseph Hooker describes it as a dome of red granite,

5,400 feet above sea level, accessible from the north and east, but

almost perpendicular to the southward where the slope is 80° for 600

feet. The elevation is said by Hooker to be 400 feet above the mean

level of the surrounding ridges and 700 feet above the bottom of

the valleys. The south or steepest side is encumbered with enormous

detached blocks, while the north is clothed with forests containing

red tree-rhododendrons and oaks. Hooker says that on its skirts grows

a "white bushy rhododendron" which he found nowhere else. There is,

however, a specimen of it now in the Shillong Lake garden. Numerous

orchids are to be found in the Kyllang wood, notably a beautiful white

one, called by the Khasis _u'tiw kyllang synrai_, which blooms in the

autumn. The view from the top of the rock is very extensive, especially

towards the north, where a magnificent panorama of the Himalayas is

obtained in the autumn. The most remarkable phenomenon of any kind in

the country is undoubtedly the enormous quantity of rain which falls

at Cherrapunji. [12] 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. The effect of the different climates can at once be seen

by examining the physique of the inhabitants. The Khasis who live

in the high central plateaux are exceptionally healthy and strong,

but those who live in the unhealthy "Bhoi country" to the north, and

in the Lynngam portion to the west of the district, are often stunted

and sickly. Not so, however, the Wárs who live on the southern slopes,

for although their country is very hot at certain times of the year, it

does not appear to be abnormally unhealthy except in certain villages,

such as Shella, Borpunji, Umniuh, and in Narpuh in the Jaintia Hills.

Origin.

The origin of the Khasis is a very vexed question. Although it is

probable that the Khasis have inhabited their present abode for at

any rate a considerable period, there seems to be a fairly general

belief amongst them that they originally came from elsewhere. The

Rev. H. Roberts, in the introduction to his Khasi Grammar, states that

"tradition, such as it is, connects them politically with the Burmese,

to whose king they were up to a comparatively recent date rendering

homage, by sending him an annual tribute in the shape of an axe,

as an emblem merely of submission." Another tradition points out the

north as the direction from which they migrated, and Sylhet as the

terminus of their wanderings, from which they were ultimately driven

back into their present hill fastnesses by a great flood, after a

more or less peaceful occupation of that district. It was on the

occasion of this great flood, the legend runs, that the Khasi lost

the art of writing, the Khasi losing his book whilst he was swimming

at the time of this flood, whereas the Bengali managed to preserve

his. Owing to the Khasis having possessed no written character before

the advent of the Welsh missionaries there are no histories as is the

case with the Ahoms of the Assam Valley, and therefore no record of

their journeys. Mr. Shadwell, the oldest living authority we have on

the Khasis, and one who has been in close touch with the people for

more than half a century, mentions a tradition amongst them that they

originally came into Assam from Burma via the Patkoi range, having

followed the route of one of the Burmese invasions. Mr. Shadwell has

heard them mention the name Patkoi as a hill they met with on their

journey. All this sort of thing is, however, inexpressibly vague. In

the chapter dealing with "Affinities" have been given some reasons for

supposing that the Khasis and other tribes of the Mon-Anam family,

originally occupied a large portion of the Indian continent. Where

the actual cradle of the Mon-Anam race was, is as impossible to

state, as it is to fix upon the exact tract of country from which

the Aryans sprang. With reference to the Khasi branch of the Mon-Anam

family, it would seem reasonable to suppose that if they are not the

autochthons of a portion of the hills on the southern bank of the

Brahmaputra, and if they migrated to Assam from some other country,

it is not unlikely that they followed the direction of the different

irruptions of foreign peoples into Assam of which we have authentic

data, i.e. from south-east to north-west, as was the case with the

Ahom invaders of Assam who invaded Assam from their settlements in the

Shan States via the Patkoi range, the different Burmese invasions,

the movements of the Khamtis and, again, the Singphos, from the

country to the east of the Hukong Valley. Whether the first cousins

of the Khasis, the Mons, moved to their present abode from China,

whether they are the aborigines of the portion of Burma they at

present occupy, or were one of the races "of Turanian origin" who,

as Forbes thinks, originally occupied the valley of the Ganges before

the Aryan invasion, must be left to others more qualified than myself

to determine. Further, it is difficult to clear up the mystery of

the survival, in an isolated position, of people like the Ho-Mundas,

whose language and certain customs exhibit points of similarity with

those of the Khasis, in close proximity to the Dravidian tribes and

at a great distance from the Khasis, there being no people who exhibit

similar characteristics inhabiting countries situated in between; but

we can, I think, reasonably suppose that the Khasis are an offshoot

of the Mon people of Further India in the light of the historical

fact I have quoted, i.e. that the movements of races into Assam

have usually, although not invariably, taken place from the east,

and not from the west. The tendency for outside people to move into

Assam from the east still continues.

Affinities.

The late Mr. S. E. Peal, F.R.G.S., in an interesting and suggestive

paper published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal

in 1896, drew attention to certain illustrations of "singular

shoulder-headed celts," found only in the Malay Peninsula till

the year 1875, when they were also discovered in Chota Nagpur, and

figured in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for June of

that year. These "celts" are, as the name implies, ancient stone

implements. Mr. Peal goes on to state the interesting fact that

when he was at Ledo and Tikak, Naga villages, east of Makum, on the

south-east frontier of the Lakhimpur district of Assam, in 1895,

he found iron implements, miniature hoes, used by the Nagas, of a

similar shape to the "shoulder-headed celts" which had been found in

the Malay Peninsula and Chota Nagpur. Now the peculiarly shaped Khasi

hoe or _mo-khiw_, a sketch of which is given, with its far projecting

shoulders, is merely an enlarged edition of the Naga hoe described

by Peal, and may therefore be regarded as a modern representative

in iron, although on an enlarged scale, of the "shoulder-headed

celts." Another interesting point is that, according to Forbes, the

Burmese name for these stone celts is _mo-gyo_. Now the Khasi name

for the hoe is _mo-khiw_. The similarity between the two words seems

very strong. Forbes says the name _mo-gyo_ in Burmese means "cloud

or sky chain," which he interprets "thunderbolt," the popular belief

there, as in other countries, being that these palaeolithic implements

fell from heaven. Although the Khasi name _mo-khiw_ has no connection

whatsoever with aerolites, it is a singular coincidence that the name

for the Khasi hoe of the present day should almost exactly correspond

with the Burmese name for the palaeolithic implement found in Burma and

the Malay Peninsula, and when it is remembered that these stone celts

are of a different shape from that of the stone implements which have

been found in India (with the exception of Chota Nagpur), there would

seem to be some grounds for believing that the Khasis are connected

with people who inhabited the Malay Peninsula and Chota Nagpur at the

time of the Stone Age. [13] That these people were what Logan calls

the Mon-Anam, may possibly be the case. Mr. Peal goes on to state,

"the discovery is interesting for other reasons, it possibly amounts

to a demonstration that Logan (who it is believed was the first to

draw attention to the points of resemblance between the languages of

the Mon-Anam or Mon-Khmêr and those of the Mundas and the Khasis), was

correct in assuming that at one time the Mon-Anam races and influence

extended from the Vindyas all over the Ganges Basin, even over Assam,

the northern border of the Ultra Indian Peninsula." Mr. Peal then

remarks that the Eastern Nagas of the Tirap, Namstik, and Sonkap group

"are strikingly like them (i.e. the Mon-Anam races), in many respects,

the women being particularly robust, with pale colour and at times

rosy cheeks." The interesting statement follows that the men wear the

Khasi-Mikir sleeveless coat. Under the heading of dress this will be

found described as a garment which leaves the neck and arms bare, with

a fringe at the bottom and with a row of tassels across the chest, the

coat being fastened by frogs in front. It is a garment of a distinctive

character and cannot be mistaken; it used to be worn largely by the

Khasis, and is still used extensively by the Syntengs and Lynngams

and by the Mikirs, and that it should have been found amongst these

Eastern Nagas is certainly remarkable. It is to be regretted that the

investigations of the Ethnographical Survey, as at present conducted,

have not extended to these Eastern Nagas, who inhabit tracts either

outside British territory or in very remote places on its confines,

so that we are at present unable to state whether any of these

tribes possess other points of affinity, as regards social customs,

with the Khasis, but it will be noticed in the chapter dealing with

memorial stones that some of the Naga tribes are in the habit of

erecting monoliths somewhat similar in character to those of the

Khasis, and that the Mikirs (who wear the Khasi sleeveless coat),

erect memorial stones exactly similar to those of the Khasis. The

evidence seems to suggest a theory that the Mon-Anam race, including

of course the Khasis, occupied at one time a much larger area in the

mountainous country to the south of the Brahmaputra in Assam than it

does at present. Further references will be found to this point in the

section dealing with memorial stones. The fact that the Ho-Mundas of

Chota Nagpur also erect memorial stones and that they possess death

customs very similar to those of the Khasis, has also been noticed

in the same chapter. We have, therefore, the following points of

similarity as regards customs between the Khasis on the one hand,

certain Eastern Naga tribes, the Mikirs, and the ancient inhabitants

of the Malay Peninsula on the other:--

(a) Peculiarly shaped hoe, i.e. the hoe with far projecting shoulders

1. Khasis.

2. Certain Eastern Naga tribes.

3. The ancient inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula.

4. The ancient inhabitants of Chota Nagpur (the Ho-Mundas?).

(b) Sleeveless coat

1. Khasis.

2. Mikirs.

3. Certain Eastern Naga tribes.

(c) Memorial stones

1. Khasis.

2. Mikirs.

3. Certain Eastern Naga tribes.

4. Ho-Mundas of Chota Nagpur.

I wish to draw no definite conclusions from the above facts, but they

are certainly worth considering with reference to Logan's theory

as stated by Peal; the theory being based on Logan's philological

inquiries. Thanks to the labours of Grierson, Logan, and Kuhn in

the linguistic field, we know that the languages of the Mon-Khmêr

group in Burma and the Malay Peninsula are intimately connected with

Khasi. I say, intimately, advisedly, for not only are roots of words

seen to be similar, but the order of the words in the sentence is

found to be the same, indicating that both these people think in

the same order when wishing to express themselves by speech. There

are also syntactical agreements. We may take it as finally proved

by Dr. Grierson and Professor Kuhn that the Mon-Khmêr, Palaung,

Wa, and Khasi languages are closely connected. In the section of the

Monograph which deals with language some striking similarities between

the languages of these tribes will be pointed out. We have not so far

been able to discover social customs common to the Palaungs and the

Khasis; this is probably due to the conversion of the Palaungs to

Buddhism, the change in the religion of the people having possibly

caused the abandonment of the primitive customs of the tribe. In a

few years' time, if the progressive rate of conversions of Khasis to

Christianity continues, probably the greater number of the Khasi social

customs will have disappeared and others will have taken their place,

so that it cannot be argued that because no manifest social customs

can now be found common to the Khasis and the Palaungs, there is no

connection between these two tribes. The strong linguistic affinity

between these two peoples and the wild _Was_ of Burma points to an

intimate connection between all three in the past. As knowledge of

the habits of the wild _Was_ improves, it is quite possible that

social customs of this tribe may be found to be held in common with

the Khasis. With regard to social affinities it will be interesting

to note the Palaung folk-tale of the origin of their Sawbwa, which is

reproduced in Sir George Scott's Upper Burma Gazetteer. The Sawbwa,

it is related, is descended from the Naga Princess Thusandi who

lived in the _Nat_ tank on the Mongok hills and who laid three eggs,

from one of which was born the ancestor of the Palaung Sawbwa. Here

we see how the Palaung regards the egg, and it is noteworthy that

the Khasis lay great stress on its potency in divination for the

purposes of religious sacrifices, and that at death it is placed on

the stomach of the deceased and is afterwards broken at the funeral

pyre. Amongst some of the tribes of the Malay Archipelago also the

_Gaji-Guru_ or medicine-man "can see from the yolk of an egg, broken

whilst sacramentally counting from one to seven, from what illness

a man is suffering and what has caused it." Here we have an almost

exactly parallel case to the Khasi custom of egg-breaking.

In the Palaung folk-tale above referred to the importance of the egg

in the eyes of Palaung is demonstrated, and we know how the Khasi

regards it. But the folk-tale is also important as suggesting that

the ancient people of Pagan were originally serpent-worshippers,

i.e. Nágás, and it is interesting to note that the Rumai or Palaung

women of the present day "wear a dress which is like the skin of

the Naga (snake)." Is it possible that the Khasi superstition of the

_thlen_, or serpent demon, and its worship, an account of which will

be found under the heading of "Human Sacrifices" in the Monograph,

has anything to do with the ancient snake-worship of the people of

Pagan, and also of the ancient inhabitants of Naga-Dwipa, and that

amongst the wild _Was_ the custom of head-hunting may have taken the

place of the Khasi human sacrifices to the _thlen_?

Notwithstanding that Sir George Scott says the story has very Burman

characteristics, the Palaung folk-tale is further interesting in

that it speaks of the Sawbwa of the Palaungs being descended from a

_princess_. This might be a suggestion of the matriarchate.

It can well be imagined how important a matter it is also, in the light

of Grierson's and Kuhn's linguistic conclusions, to ascertain whether

any of the Mon-Khmêr people in Anam and Cambodia and neighbouring

countries possess social customs in common with the Khasis. In case

it may be possible for French and Siamese ethnologists in Further

India to follow up these inquiries at some subsequent date, it may

be stated that information regarding social customs is required with

reference to the people who speak the following languages in Anam and

Cambodia and Cochin China which belong to the Mon-Khmêr group--_Suk,

Stieng, Bahnar, Anamese, Khamen-Boran, Xong, Samre, Khmu_, and _Lamet_.

Notwithstanding our failure up till now to find any patent and direct

social customs in common between the Khasis and the Palaungs, I am

in hopes that we may yet discover some such affinities. Mr. Lowis,

the Superintendent of Ethnography in Burma, states that there is no

vestige of the matriarchal system among the Palaungs; but there is the

folk-tale I have quoted above. In matters of succession, inheritance,

&c., the Palaungs, Mr. Lowis, says, profess to follow the Shans,

whose customs in this regard have a Buddhistic basis. The Palaungs are

devout Buddhists, and, like the Burmans and Shans, bury their lay dead,

whereas the Khasis invariably burn. There is nothing in the shape

of memorial stones amongst the Palaungs. _Primâ facie_ these appear

to be points of differentiation between the Palaungs and the Khasis;

but they should not, as has already been stated, be regarded as proof

positive that the tribes are not connected, and it is possible that

under the influence of Buddhism the Palaungs may have almost entirely

abandoned their ancient customs, like the Christian Khasis.

Having noticed some similarities as regards birth customs, as

described in Dr. Frazer's "Golden Bough," between the Khasis and

certain inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies, I wrote to the Dutch

authorities in Batavia requesting certain further information. My

application was treated with the greatest courtesy, and I am indebted

to the kindness of the President, his secretary, and Mr. C. M. Pleyte,

Lecturer of Indonesian Ethnology at the Gymnasium of William III.,

at Batavia, for some interesting as well as valuable information. With

reference to possible Malay influence in the countries inhabited by the

people who speak the Mon-Khmêr group of languages in Further India, it

was thought desirable to ascertain whether any of the people inhabiting

the Dutch East Indies possessed anything in common with the Khasis, who

also belong to the Mon-Khmêr group. There are, according to Mr. Pleyte,

pure matriarchal customs to be found amongst the Minangkabe Malays

inhabiting the Padang uplands and adjacent countries, in Sumatra,

in Agam, the fifty Kotas, and Tanah Datar, more or less mixed with

patriarchal institutions; they are equally followed by the tribes

inhabiting parts of Korinchi and other places. The apparently strong

survival of the matriarchate in parts of the island of Sumatra,

as compared with this corresponding most characteristic feature

of the Khasis, is a point for consideration. Mr. Pleyte goes on

to state "regarding ancestor-worship, it may be said that this

is found everywhere throughout the whole Archipelago; even the

tribes that have already adopted Islam, venerate the spirits of

their departed." The same might be said of some of the Khasis who

have accepted Christianity, and much more of the Japanese. I would

here refer the reader to the chapter on "Ancestor-worship." In the

Southern Moluccas the placenta is mixed with ashes, placed in a pot,

and hung on a tree; a similar custom is observed in Mandeling, on

the west coast of Sumatra. This is a custom universally observed

amongst the Khasis at births. Teknonomy to some extent prevails

amongst some of these Malay tribes as with the Khasis. It will be

seen from the above notes that there are some interesting points

of affinity between the Khasis and some of the Malay tribes, and if

we add that the Khasis are decidedly Malay in appearance, we cannot

but wonder whether the Malays have any connection not only with the

Mon-Khmêr family, but also with the Khasis, with the Ho-Mundas, and

with the Naga tribes mentioned by Mr. Peal in his interesting paper

published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, already

referred to. We will study the strong linguistic affinities between

these peoples in the section which deals with language.

M. Aymonier in "Le Cambodge" mentions the matriarchate as having been

prevalent apparently amongst the primitive races of Cambodia, and

notes that the ancient Chinese writers spoke of Queens in Fou-nan

(Cambodia). If the Khmêrs were the ancient people of Cambodia,

here we have an important landmark in common between them and the

Khasis. M. Aymonier goes on to speak of priestesses, and the Cambodian

taboo, _tam_ or _trenam_, which Mr. Lowis, the Superintendent of

Ethnography in Burma, suggests may be akin to the Khasi _sang_.

Dress.

Dress may be divided into two divisions, ancient and modern. It will

be convenient to take the former division first. The Khasi males

of the interior wear the sleeveless coat or _jymphong_, which is a

garment leaving the neck and arms bare, with a fringe at the bottom,

and with a row of tassels across the chest; it is fastened by frogs

in front. This coat, however, may be said to be going out of fashion

in the Khasi Hills, its place being taken by coats of European pattern

in the more civilized centres and by all sorts of nondescript garments

in the interior. The sleeveless coat, however, is still worn by many

Syntengs in the interior and by the Bhois and Lynngams. The men in the

Khasi Hills wear a cap with ear-flaps. The elderly men, or other men

when smartness is desired, wear a white turban, which is fairly large

and is well tied on the head. Males in the Siemship of Nongstoin and

in the North-Western corner of the district wear knitted worsted caps

which are often of a red colour. These are sold at Nongstoin market

at about 8 or 9 annas each. They are brought to Nongstoin by traders

from the Synteng country, and from Shillong, where they are knitted

generally by Synteng women. A small cloth is worn round the waist

and between the legs, one end of which hangs down in front like a

small apron. The Syntengs wear a somewhat differently shaped cap,

having no ear-flaps and with a high-peaked crown. Both Khasi and

Synteng caps are generally of black cloth, having, as often as not,

a thick coating of grease. The old-fashioned Khasi female's dress,

which is that worn by people of the cultivator class of the present

day, is the following:--Next to the skin is worn a garment called _ka

jympien_, which is a piece of cloth wound round the body and fastened

at the loins with a kind of cloth belt, and which hangs down from

the waist to the knee or a little above it. Over this is worn a long

piece of cloth, sometimes of muga silk, called _ka jainsem_. This is

not worn like the Assamese _mekhela_ or Bengali _sari_, for it hangs

loosely from the shoulders down to a little above the ankles, and is

not caught in at the waist--in fact, Khasi women have no waist. It

is kept in position by knotting it over both the shoulders. Over

the _jainsem_ another garment called _ka jain kup_ is worn. This is

thrown over the shoulders like a cloak, the two ends being knotted in

front, it hangs loosely down the back and sides to the ankles. It is

frequently of some gay colour, the fashion in Mawkhar and Cherrapunji

being some pretty shade of French gray or maroon. Over the head and

shoulders is worn a wrapper called _ka tap-moh-khlieh_. This, again,

is frequently of some bright colour, but is often white. There is a

fold in the _jainsem_ which serves as a pocket for keeping odds and

ends. Khasi women in cold weather wear gaiters which are often long

stockings without feet, or, in the case of the poor, pieces of cloth

wound round the legs like putties, or cloth gaiters. I have seen women

at Nongstoin wearing gaiters of leaves. It was explained to me that

these were worn to keep off the leeches. The Khasi women might almost

be said to be excessively clothed--they wear the cloak in such a way

as to hide entirely the graceful contours of the figure. 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. With them the

_jain khrywang_ takes the place of the Khasi _jainsem_, and is worn by

them in the following manner:--One of the two ends is passed under one

armpit and its two corners are knotted on the opposite shoulder. The

other end is then wound round the body and fastened at the waist,

from which it hangs half way down the calf. Over this they wear a

sort of apron, generally of _muga_ silk. 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. Wár women, however, often have their heads uncovered.

_Modern dress_.--The up-to-date Khasi male wears knickerbockers

made by a tailor, stockings, and boots; also a tailor-made coat

and waistcoat, a collar without a tie, and a cloth peaked cap. The

young lady of fashion dons a chemise, also often a short coat of

cloth or velvet, stockings, and smart shoes. Of course she wears

the _jainsem_ and cloak, but occasionally she may be seen without

the latter when the weather is warm. It should be mentioned that the

Khasi males are seldom seen without a haversack in which betel-nut,

lime, and other odds and ends are kept; and the female has her purse,

which, however, is not visible, being concealed within the folds of

her lower garment. The haversack of the men is of cloth in the high

plateau and in the Bhoi country, but it is of knitted fibre in the

Wár country. The Syntengs have a cloth bag, which they call _ka muna_.

The Wár men dress very much the same as the neighbouring Sylheti

Hindus. The Wár women, especially the Shella women, wear very

pretty yellow and red checked and striped cloths. The cloak is not

so frequently worn as amongst Khasis, except in cold weather. The

Lynngam dress is very similar to that of the neighbouring Garos. The

males wear the sleeveless coat, or _phong marong_, of cotton striped

red and blue, red and white, or blue and white, fastened in the same

manner as the Khasi coat and with tassels. A small cloth, generally

red or blue, is tied between the legs, one end of it being allowed

to hang down, as with the Khasis, like an apron in front. A round

cap is commonly worn; but the elderly men and people of importance

wear turbans. The females wear short cloths of cotton striped red

and blue, the cloth reaching just above the knee, like the Garos;

married women wear no upper clothing, except in winter, when a red or

blue cotton cloth is thrown loosely across the shoulders. The women

wear a profusion of blue bead necklaces and brass earrings like the

Garos. Unmarried girls wear a cloth tightly tied round the figure,

similar to that worn by the Kacharis. A bag of cloth for odds and

ends is carried by the men slung across the shoulder. It should be

mentioned that even in ancient times great people amongst the Khasis,

like Siems, wore waist-cloths, and people of lees consequence on great

occasions, such as dances. The use of waist-cloths among the Khasis

is on the increase, especially among those who live in Shillong and

the neighbouring villages and in Jowai and Cherrapunji.

Tattooing.

None of the Khasis tattoo; the only people in the hills who tattoo

are certain tribes of the Bhoi country which are really Mikir. These

tattoo females on the forehead when they attain the age of puberty,

a straight horizontal line being drawn from the parting of the hair

down the forehead and nose. The line is one-eighth to one-quarter

of an inch broad. The Lynngams occasionally tattoo a ring round the

wrist of females.

Jewellery.

The Khasis, as a people, may be said to be fond of jewellery. The

women are specially partial to gold and coral bead necklaces. The

beads are round and large, and are usually unornamented with filigree

or other work. The coral is imported from Calcutta. The gold bead is

not solid, but a hollow sphere filled with lac. These necklaces are

worn by men as well as women, especially on gala occasions. Some of

the necklaces are comparatively valuable, e.g. that in the possession

of the Mylliem Siem family. The gold and coral beads are prepared

locally by Khasi as well as by foreign goldsmiths. The latter derive

considerable profits from the trade. The Assam Census Report of

1901 shows 133 goldsmiths in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district,

but does not distinguish between Khasis and foreigners. There are

Khasi goldsmiths to be found in Mawkhar, Cherrapunji, Mawlai, and

other villages. Sylheti goldsmiths are, however, more largely employed

than Khasi in Mawsynram and certain other places on the south side of

the hills. In Mr. Henniker's monograph on "gold and silver wares of

Assam" it is stated that the goldsmiths of Karimganj in Sylhet make

specially for Khasis certain articles of jewellery, such as men's and

women's earrings, &c. An article of jewellery which is believed to be

peculiar to the Khasis is the silver or gold crown. This crown is worn

by the young women at dances, such as the annual Nongkrem dance. An

illustration of one will be seen by referring to the plate. These

crowns are circlets of silver or gold ornamented with filigree

work. There is a peak or, strictly speaking, a spike at the back,

called _u'tiew-lasubon_, which stands up some six inches above the

crown. There are long ropes or tassels of silver hanging from the crown

down the back. Earrings are worn both by men and women. The former

affect a pattern peculiar to themselves, viz. large gold pendants of

a circular or oval shape. Women wear different patterns of earrings,

according to locality. An ornament which I believe is also peculiar to

the Khasis is the _rupa-tylli_, or silver collar. This is a broad flat

silver collar which is allowed to hang down over the neck in front,

and which is secured by a fastening behind. Silver chains are worn

by men as well as by women. The men wear them round the waist like

a belt, and the women hang them round their necks, the chains being

allowed to depend as low as the waist. Bracelets are worn by women;

these are either of gold or of silver. The Lynngam males wear bead

necklaces, the beads being sometimes of cornelian gathered from the

beds of the local hill streams, and sometimes of glass obtained from

the plains markets of Damra and Moiskhola. The cornelian necklaces are

much prized by the Lynngams, and are called by them _'pieng blei_,

or gods' necklaces. Like the Garos, the Lynngams wear as many brass

earrings as possible, the lobes of the ears of the females being

frequently greatly distended by their weight. These earrings are made

out of brass wire obtained from the plains markets. The Lynngams wear

silver armlets above the elbow and also on the wrists. It is only a

man who has given a great feast who can wear silver armlets above the

elbows. These armlets are taken off as a sign of mourning, but never

on ordinary occasions. The Lynngams do not wear Khasi jewellery, but

jewellery of a pattern to be seen in the Garo Hills. A distinctive

feature of the Lynngam women is the very large number of blue bead

necklaces they wear. They put on such a large number as to give

them almost the appearance of wearing horse collars. These beads are

obtained from the plains markets, and are of glass. Further detailed

information regarding this subject can be obtained from Mr. Henniker's

monograph, which contains a good plate illustrating the different

articles of jewellery.

Weapons.

The weapons of the Khasis are swords, spears, bows and arrows, and a

circular shield which was used formerly for purposes of defence. The

swords are usually of wrought iron, occasionally of steel, and are

forged in the local smithies. The Khasi sword is of considerable

length, and possesses the peculiarity of not having a handle of

different material from that which is used for the blade. In the Khasi

sword the handle is never made of wood or bone, or of anything except

iron or steel, the result being that the sword is most awkward to hold,

and could never have been of much use as a weapon of offence.

The same spear is used for thrusting and casting. The spear is not

decorated with wool or hair like the spears of the Naga tribes, but it

is nevertheless a serviceable weapon, and would be formidable in the

hand of a resolute man at close quarters. The length of the spear is

about 6 1/2 feet. The shaft is generally of bamboo, although sometimes

of ordinary wood. The spear heads are forged in the local smithies.

The Khasi weapon _par excellence_ is the bow. Although no "Robin

Hoods," the Khasis are very fair archers, and they use the bow largely

for hunting. The Khasi bow (_ka ryntieh_) is of bamboo, and is about 5

feet in height. The longest bow in use is said to be about the height

of a man, the average height amongst the Khasis being about about 5

feet 2 inches to 5 feet 4 inches. The bowstring is of split bamboo,

the bamboos that are used being _u spit, u shken_, and _u siej-lieh_.

The arrows (_ki khnam_) are of two kinds: (_a_) the barbed-headed

(_ki pliang_), and (_b_) the plain-headed (_sop_). 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." The feathers of the following birds

are used for arrows:--Vultures, geese, cranes, cormorants, and

hornbills. Arrow-heads are made of iron or steel, and are forged

locally. The distance a Khasi arrow will carry, shot from the ordinary

bow by a man of medium strength, is 150 to 180 yards. The Khasi shield

is circular in shape, of hide, and studded with brass or silver. In

former days shields of rhinoceros hide are said to have been used,

but nowadays buffalo skin is used. The shields would stop an arrow

or turn aside a spear or sword thrust. The present-day shield is used

merely for purposes of display.

Before the advent of the British into the hills the Khasis are said

to have been acquainted with the art of manufacturing gunpowder,

which was prepared in the neighbourhood of Mawsanram, Kynchi, and

Cherra. The gunpowder used to be manufactured of saltpetre, sulphur,

and charcoal, the three ingredients being pounded together in a

mortar. The Jaintia Rajas possessed cannon, two specimens of which

are still to be seen at Jaintiapur. Their dimensions are as follows:--

Length, 9 feet; circumference in the middle, 3 feet 2 inches; diameter

of the bore 3 inches. There are some old cannon also at Lyngkyrdem

and at Kyndiar in the Khyrim State, of the same description as

above. These cannons were captured from the Jaintia Raja by the Siem

of Nongkrem. No specimens of the cannon ball used are unfortunately

available. There are also small mortars, specimens of which are to

be seen in the house of the Siem of Mylliem.

The weapons of the Syntengs are the same as those of the Khasis,

although some of them are called by different names. At Nartiang I saw

an old Khasi gun, which the people say was fired from the shoulder. I

also saw a mortar of the same pattern as the one described amongst

the Khasi weapons.

The Wár and Lynngam weapons are also the same, but with different

names. The only weapons used by the Bhois (Mikirs) are the spear

and bill-hook for cutting down jungle. Butler, writing of the

Mikirs 1854, says, "Unlike any other hill tribes of whom we have

any knowledge, the Mikirs seem devoid of anything approaching to a

martial spirit. They are a quiet, industrious, race of cultivators,

and the only weapons used by them are the spear and _da_ hand-bill

for cutting down jungle. It is said, after an attempt to revolt from

the Assamese rule, they were made to forswear the use of arms, which

is the cause of the present generation having no predilection for war."