Miscellaneous
Teknonomy.
The Khasis, like the Alfoors of Poso in Celebes, seem to be somewhat
reluctant to utter the names of their own immediate relations, and of
other people's also. Parents are very frequently called the mother
of so and so (the child's name being mentioned), or the father of
so and so, cf. _Ka kmi ka Weri, U kpa u Philip_. The actual names
of the parents, after falling into desuetude, are often entirely
forgotten. The origin of the practice may be that the Khasis, like
the Alfoors, were reluctant to mention their parents by name for fear
of attracting the notice of evil spirits. The practice of teknonomy,
however, is not confined to the Khasis or the Alfoors of Celebes
(see footnote to page 412 of the "Golden Bough"). The custom is also
believed to have been prevalent to some extent not long ago in some
parts of Ireland.
The advent of the Welsh Missionaries and the partial dissemination of
English education has in some cases produced rather peculiar names. I
quote some instances:--
U Water Kingdom, Ka Mediterranean Sea, Ka Red Sea; U Shakewell Bones,
U Overland, Ka Brindisi, Ka Medina, Ka Mary Jones, U Mission, and
Ka India.
Khasi Method of Calculating Time.
The Khasis adopt the lunar month, _u bynai_, twelve of which go to
the year _ka snem_. They have no system of reckoning cycles, as is
the custom with some of the Shan tribes. The following are the names
of the months:--
_U kylla-lyngkot_, corresponding to January. This month in the Khasi
Hills is the coldest in the year. The Khasis turn (_kylla_) the fire
brand (_lyngkot_) in order to keep themselves warm in this month,
hence its name _kylla-lyngkot_.
_U Rymphang_, the windy month, corresponding with February.
_U Lyber_, March. In this month the hills are again clothed with
verdure, and the grass sprouts up (_lyber_), hence the name of the
month, _u Lyber_.
_U Iaiong_, April. This name may possibly be a corruption of u
_bynai-iong_, i.e. the black moon, the changeable weather month.
_U Jymmang_, May. This is the month when the plant called by the
Khasis _ut'ieu jymmang_, or snake-plant, blooms, hence the name.
_U Jyllieu_. The deep water month, the word _jyllieu_ meaning
deep. This corresponds to June.
_U náitung_. The evil-smelling month; when the vegetation rots owing
to excessive moisture. This corresponds with July.
_U'náilar_. The month when the weather is supposed to become clear,
_synlar_, and when the plant called _ja'nailar_ blooms. This is August.
_U'nái-lur_. September. The month for weeding the ground.
_U Ri-sáw_. The month when the Autumn tints first appear, literally,
when the country, _ri_, becomes red, _saw_. This is October.
_U'nái wieng_. The month when cultivators fry the produce of their
fields in _wieng_ or earthen pots, corresponding with November.
_U Noh-práh_. The month when the _práh_ or baskets for carrying the
crops are put away (_buh noh_). Another interpretation given by Bivar
is "the month of the fall of the leaf." December.
The Khasi week has the peculiarity that it almost universally consists
of eight days. The reason of the eight-day week is because the markets
are usually held every eighth day. The names of the days of the week
are not those of planets, but of places where the principal markets
are held, or used to be held, in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. The
following are the names of the days of the week and of the principal
markets in the district:--
Khasi Hills. Jaintia Hills.
1. Lynkah (Barpani or Khawang) Kylino.
(Suhtnga).
2. Nongkrem Pynaing.
3. Um-Iong (Maolong the hat at Maolong. (Nartiang).
Luban)
4. Ranghop (Ieu-bah at Cherra) Maosiang. (Jowai).
(Mawtawar in Mylliem)
(Unsaw in Nongkhlaw)
5. Shillong (Laitlyngkot) Maoshai. (Shangpung).
6. Pomtih or Pomtiah (Mawkhar, Pynkat. (Mynao).
small market)
7. Umnih Thym-blein.
8. Yeo-duh (Mawkhar, large market) Ka-hat. (Jaintiapur).
In the Wár country, markets are usually held every fourth day,
e.g. at Nongjri, Mawbang, Tyllap, and Shella. At Theria the market
is held every Friday, and at Hat-majai, or Rholagunj, every Tuesday.
The Lynngams.
Although mention has been made incidentally in various parts of
this monograph of Lynngam customs, it has been thought necessary
to give the Lynngams a separate chapter, as these people differ so
very greatly from the Khasis in their manner of life, and in their
customs. _Lynngam_ is the Khasi name; the Garo name for the Lynngams
is _Megam_. There are several _Megam_ villages in the north-eastern
corner of the Garo Hills district, and there is regular communication
kept up between these villages and the Lynngam inhabitants of the
Khasi Hills district. The Lynngams must not be confused with the
_Háná_ or _Námdaniya_ Garos who inhabit the low hills to the north
of the Khasi Hills district, and are called by the Khasis _Dko_. All
Lynngams claim to be Khasis, they dislike being called Garos; but
although it is true they speak what may be called a dialect of Khasi,
and observe some of the Khasi customs, the Lynngams are more Garo
than Khasi. Before proceeding further, it should be stated that the
Assamese of Boko call the Lynngams _Núniyá_ Garos, all hill people
being Garos to the Assamese of that region, without distinction or
difference. It is owing to these three different names being used for
the same people that there has been so much confusion about Lynngams
previously; e.g. at one census they were named _Lynngam_, at another
they received the appellation of Garo, and at a third enumeration
they were called Khasis. In Section I. the habitat of the Lynngams has
been roughly defined. It is impossible to define the Lynngam country
exactly, because these people are continually shifting their village
sites owing to the exigencies of _jhum_ cultivation, which has been
described in Section II. Some of the Lynngams preserve a tradition that
they originally came from the Kamrup plains. It is interesting that a
people, like the Garos in so many respects, should have the same idea
as the Garos as to the hills on the south bank of the Brahmaputra not
always having been their abode. The Garo legend is that they dwelt
for some years in the Goalpara and Kamrup plains after they descended
from Thibet, and before they moved to the Garo Hills; and there is
unmistakable evidence of their occupation of both districts in the
shape of certain Garo villages on both banks of the Brahmaputra for
some little distance up the river. If, as I suspect, the Lynngams are
an offshoot of the Garos, it is, perhaps, possible that they entered
the Khasi Hills much in the same way as the Garos entered the hill
district to which they have given their name. The Lynngams are much
darker than the Khasis, and possess the Thibeto-Burman type of feature
often to a marked degree. It is not extraordinary that they should
have adopted some of the Khasi customs; for the Khasis, being the
stronger people, would in course of time be bound to influence them
in this respect. That the Lynngams observe the matriarchate and erect
(some clans) memorial stones is not peculiar, because the Garos, like
the Khasis, are also a matriarchal people (to a limited degree), and
the custom of erecting memorial stones is not confined to the Khasis,
for other hill tribes in Assam observe the practice, e.g. certain
Naga tribes and the Mikirs; and the Garos themselves put up carved
posts, called _kima_, in honour of the departed. Although there is
not much intermarriage between the Khasis and the Lynngams nowadays,
perhaps in days gone by there was a mixture of blood, the result
being the hybrid race we are now considering. Some of the leading
characteristics of the Lynngams will now be detailed. The Lynngams
are by complexion swarthy, with features of Mongolian type. The men
are of middle height and the women remarkably short, both sexes being
not nearly so robust as the Khasis, a result due probably to climatic
influences, for the Lynngams live in fever- haunted jungles. The men
have very little hair about the face, although a scanty moustache is
sometimes seen, the hairs in the centre being carefully plucked out,
the result being two tufts on either side. Beards are never seen. The
women are ill-favoured, and wear very little clothing. The men wear the
sleeveless coat of the Khasi and Mikir pattern, called _phongmarong_,
which is made of cotton dyed red, blue, and white. This custom may
have been borrowed from the Khasi. They do not grow their own cotton,
but obtain it from the plains. They make their own dyes, _changlong_
(red) and _hur sai-iong_ (black). A cotton cloth, barely enough for
purposes of decency, is tied between the legs, the ends being allowed
to hang down in front and behind. Sometimes an apron is worn in
front. At the present day the men wear knitted woollen caps, generally
black or red, of the Nongstoin pattern (a sort of fisherman's cap),
but the elderly men and head-men wear turbans. The females wear a
cotton cloth about eighteen inches broad round the loins, sometimes
striped red and blue, but more often only dark blue. A blue or red
cloth is thrown loosely across the shoulders by unmarried girls, but
married women only wear the waist-cloth, like the Garos. A cloth is
tied round the head by married women, sometimes, Garo fashion. The
women wear quantities of blue beads as necklaces, like their Garo
sisters. They obtain the beads from the Garo markets at the foot
of the hills. Brass ear-rings are worn by both sexes; the women,
like the Garos, load their ears to such an extent with brass rings
as to distend the lobes greatly. Silver armlets are worn by the
head-men only, or by those who possess the means to give a great
feast to the villagers. This is the custom of the Garo _nokmas_, or
head-men. Both sexes wear bracelets. The men also wear necklaces of
beads. The rich wear necklaces of cornelian and another stone which
is thought by the Lynngams to be valuable. A necklace of such stones
is called _u'pieng blei_ (god's necklace). This stone is apparently
some rough gem which may be picked up by the Lynngams in the river
beds. A rich man amongst them, however, is one who possesses a number
of metal gongs, which they call _wiang_. For these they pay very high
prices, Rs. 100 being quite a moderate sum for one of them. Being
curious to see one of these gongs, I asked a _sirdar_, or head-man,
to show me one. He replied that he would do so, but it would take time,
as he always buried his gongs in the jungle for fear of thieves. Next
morning he brought me a gong of bell metal, with carvings of animals
engraved thereon. The gong when struck gave out a rich deep note
like that of Burmese or Thibetan gongs. These gongs have a regular
currency in this part of the hills, and represent to the Lynngams
"Bank of England" notes. It would be interesting to try to ascertain
what is their history, for no one in the Lynngam country makes them
in these days. Is it possible that the Garos brought them with them
when they migrated from Thibet? The gongs are well known in the Garo
Hills, and I hear that when a _nokma_, or head-man, there dies his
corpse is laid out upon them. They thus possess also an element of
sanctity, besides being valuable for what they will fetch to the
Garos or Lynngams. We may hope to hear more about them in Captain
Playfair's account of the Garos.
The Lynngams do not tattoo. Their weapons are the large-headed
Garo spear, the dao, and the shield. They do not usually carry bows
and arrows, although there are some who possess them. They are by
occupation cultivators. They sow two kinds of hill rice, red and white,
on the hill-sides. They have no wet paddy cultivation, and they do
not cultivate in terraces like the Nagas. They burn the jungle about
February, after cutting down some of the trees and clearing away some
of the debris, and then sow the paddy broadcast, without cultivating
the ground in any way. They also cultivate millet and Jobs-tears in
the same way. With the paddy chillies are sown the first year. The
egg plant, arum, ginger, turmeric, and sweet potatoes of several
varieties are grown by them in a similar manner. Those that rear the
lac insect plant _landoo_ tress (Hindi _arhal dal_) in the forest
clearings, and rear the insect thereon. Some of these people, however,
are prohibited by a custom of their own from cultivating the _landoo_,
in which case they plant certain other trees favourable to the growth
of the lac insect. The villages are situated near their patches of
cultivation in the forest. The villages are constantly shifting,
owing to the necessity of burning fresh tracts of forest every two
years. The houses are entirely built of bamboo, and, for such temporary
structures, are very well built. In front, the houses are raised some
3 or 4 ft. from the ground on platforms, being generally built on
the side of a fairly steep hill, one end of the house resting on the
ground, and the other on bamboo posts. The back end of the house is
sometimes some 8 or 9 ft. from the ground. At the end of the house
farthest away from the village path is a platform used for sitting
out in the evening, and for spreading chillies and other articles to
dry. Some Lynngam houses have only one room in which men, women, and
children an all huddled together, the hearth being in the centre, and,
underneath the platform, the pigs. Well-to-do people, however, possess
a retiring room, where husband and wife sleep. A house I measured at
Nongsohbar village was of the following dimensions:--Length, 42 ft;
breadth, 16 ft.; height of house from the ground to the eaves, front,
9 ft.; back 18 ft. Houses are built with a portion of the thatch
hanging over the eaves in front. No explanation could be given me for
this. It is probably a Garo custom. In some Lynngam villages there
are houses in the centre of the village where the young unmarried
men sleep, where male guests are accommodated, and where the village
festivities go on. These are similar to the _dekachang_ or bachelors'
club-houses of the Mikirs, Garos, and Lalungs, and to the _morang_
of the Nagas. This is a custom of the Thibeto-Burman tribes in Assam,
and is not a Khasi institution. There are also high platforms, some
12 ft. or 15 ft. in height, in Lynngam villages, where the elders sit
of an evening in the hot weather and take the air. Lynngam houses and
villages are usually much cleaner than the ordinary Khasi villages,
and although the Lynngams keep pigs, they do not seems to be so
much _en évidence_ as in the Khasi village. There is little or no
furniture in a Lynngam house. The Lynngam sleeps on a mat on the
floor, and in odd weather covers himself with a quilt, made out of
the bark of a tree, which is beaten out and then carefully woven,
several layers of flattened bark being used before the right thickness
is attained. This quilt is called by the Lynngam "_Ka syllar_" (Garo
_simpak_). Food is cooked in earthen pots, but no plates are used,
the broad leaves of the _mariang_ tree taking their place. The leaves
are thrown away after use, a fresh supply being required for each meal.
The Lynngams brew rice beer, they do no distil spirit; the beer is
brewed according to the Khasi method. Games they have none, and there
are no jovial archery meetings like those of the Khasis. The Lynngam
methods of hunting are setting spring guns and digging pitfalls
for game. 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
people declared it to be a very old one; but this I very much doubt,
and I fear that these objectionable methods of hunting are still
used. The Lynngams fish to a small extent with nets, but their idea
of fishing, _par excellence_, is poisoning the streams, an account
of which has already been given in this monograph. The Lynngams are
omnivorous feeders, they may be said to eat everything except dogs,
snakes, the _huluk_ monkey, and lizards. They like rice, when they
can get it; for sometimes the out-turn of their fields does not
last them more than a few months. They then have to fall back on
Jobstears and millet. They eat arums largely, and for vegetables
they cook wild plantains and the young shoots of bamboos and cane
plants. The Lynngams are divided up into exogamous clans in the same
manner as the Khasis. The clans are overgrown families. The Lynngams
have some stories regarding the founders of these clans, of which the
following is a specimen:--"A woman was asleep under a _sohbar_ tree
in the jungle, a flower from which fell on her, and she conceived
and bore a female child who was the ancestress of the Nongsohbar
clan." Some of the stories of the origins of other clans do not bear
repeating. There do not appear to be any hypergamous groups. As
with the Khasis, it is a deadly sin to marry any one belonging to
your own _kur_, or clan. Unlike the Khasis, however, a Lynngam can
marry two sisters at a time. The Lynngam marriages are arranged by
_ksiangs_, or go-betweens much in the same way as Khasi marriages;
but the ritual observed is less elaborate, and shows a mixture of
Khasi and Garo customs (see section III.). The Lynngams intermarry
with the Garos. It appears that sometimes the parents of girls exact
bride-money, and marriages by capture have been heard of. Both of these
customs are more characteristic of the Bodo tribes of the plains than
of the Khasis. There are no special birth customs, as with the Khasis,
except that when the umbilical cord falls a fowl is sacrificed, and
the child is brought outside the house. Children are named without
any special ceremony. The death customs of the Lynngams have been
described in Section III. A peculiar characteristic is the keeping of
the dead body in the house for days, sometimes even for several months,
before it is burnt. The putrefying corpse inside the house seems to
cause these people no inconvenience, for whilst it remains there, they
eat, carry on their ordinary avocations, and sleep there, regardless
of what would be considered by others an intolerable nuisance. The
religion of these people consists of a mixture of ancestor-worship
and the propitiation of the spirits of fell and fall, which are,
most of them, believed to be of evil influence, as is the case with
other savage races. As with the people of Nongstoin, the primaeval
ancestress, "_ka Iaw bei_," is worshipped for the welfare of the
clan, a sow being sacrificed to her, with a gourd of rice-beer,
and leaves of the oak, or _dieng-sning_ tree. The leaves of the oak
are afterwards hung up inside the house, together with the jaw bone
of the pig. Sacrifices are offered to a forest demon, _U Bang-jang_
(a god who brings illness), by the roadside; also to _Ka Miang Bylli
U Majymma_, the god of cultivation, at seed time, on the path to the
forest clearing where the seed is sown. Models of paddy stone-houses,
baskets and agricultural implements are made, sand being used to
indicate the grain. These are placed by the roadside, the skulls
of the sacrificial animals and the feathers of fowls being hung up
on bamboo about the place where the has been performed. There are
no priests or _lyngdohs_, the fathers of the hamlet performing the
various ceremonies. The Lynngams possess no head-hunting customs, as
far as it has been possible to ascertain. These people are still wild
and uncivilized. Although they do not, as a rule, give trouble, from
an administrative point of view, a very serious dacoity, accompanied
by murder, was committed by certain Lynngams at an Assamese village
on the outskirts of the Lynngam country a few years ago. The victims
were two Merwari merchants and their servant, as well as another
man. These people were brutally murdered by the Lynngams, and robbed
of their property. The offenders were, however, successfully traced
and arrested by Inspector Raj Mohan Das, and several of them suffered
capital punishment, the remainder being transported for life.