CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN GARO - MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Marriage is strictly exogamous. The husband and wife must belong to separate clans—a Sangma cannot marry a Sangma or a Momin a Momin. The children take the mother's clan. If the mother is a Momin and the father a Sangma the children all become Momins, not Sangmas. The proposal for marriage always comes from the woman's side and it is the girl who normally chooses her husband. But an only daughter or the youngest daughter is generally given in marriage to the son of her father's sister or in the absence of such a first cousin to another person of her father's motherhood. After marriage the son-in-law comes to live in his wife's parents house and becomes the father-in-laws' nokrom, that is to say, a kind of representative of the father's clan in the mother's family. After the death of the father-in-law the nokrom marries the widowed mother-in-law, thus becoming the husband of both mother and daughter. This custom, which is beginning to be discarded amongst enlightened sections of Garos, is rather extraordinary and I do not know if there is anything parallel in any other primitive society. Mere marriage with the widow is not sufficient. In order that the female children may be entitled to inherit the mother's property there must be nuptial consummation between the young husband and in his old wife.

When there is no nokrom for a widow to marry, she is not allowed to remarry without the permission of the family of the deceased husband. As this custom, called the law of akim worked harshly on the womenfolk, the Government refused to recognise it. Never theless, the custom is still honoured in practice.

A man can marry as many wives as he wishes but if he marries two sisters he is required to marry the elder one first. Before a man marries a second wife he has to obtain the permission of the first. failing which he is liable to pay compensation (dai) to her. The first wife is called jik-mamung or principal wife and the other wives are called jik-gites, that is, concubines, but this does not mean social inferiority of the jik-gites. When a man marries his uncle's widow she always becomes jik-mamung irrespective of whether she is married earlier or later than the other wives, A widow who refuses to marry her husband's nephew is required to pay dai to the nephew.

There is no custom among the Garos of paying any marriage- price, which exists amongst the Mizos.

Divorce is common and easily obtained on grounds of adultery etc. A man or a woman is entitled to a divorce even without a cause in which case the party seeking the divorce has to pay the customary dai of rupees sixty only.

CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN GARO - A SOCIETY BASED ON MOTHERHOOD

Like the Khasis the Garos are a matrilineal people. The unit or group on which society is based is the machong which has been translated by Colonel Dalton as, 'motherhood' , which is not the same thing as a family. All members of a machong claim descent from a common ancestress or mother, descent always being through the female or the mother. The father, both amongst the Khasis and the Garos, is more or less an outsider and his family is hardly recognized by the children. Machongs are generally named after animals, rivers, caves etc., e.g. the Rangsan machong or 'the children of the bear', the dove machong, Wasra machong (after the Wasra stream) etc

CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN GARO - MAIN SEPTS OR CLANS

As already pointed out, there are large communities of Garos living outside the Garo Hills in the plains of Assam and East Pakistan. The Garos are divided into various sub-tribes with varying customs and manners. But the main septs or clans into which the race is divided are three, the Maraks, the Momins and the Sangmas. Each sept is exogamous, marriage within the clan being strictly taboo. Some sub-clans like the Abengs, Arengs, and Siras are beginning to branch away from the original clans and are developing into independent exogamous clans.

INDUSTRIES IN GARO HILLS

As has already been stated, the Garo is essentially an agriculturist. Except for weaving of cloth by the womenfolk, which is a common practice all over Assam, both hills and plains, and making of some bamboo and cane mats, dugouts and boats and rudimentary implements of metal, they have hardly any cottage industries. But the district is rich in mineral resources particularly coal of high grade.

A thermal power station has been set up at Nangalbibra near the Khasi Hills border, near which extraction of coal on a commercial scale is undertaken. If the district is connected by rail there is the possibility of an industrial complex growing up around this area which would alter the entire complexion of the district and the character of the people.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO PEOPLE - DANCING

Along with drinking, dancing to the accompaniment of music produced by buflalo horn singas,

bamboo flutes and drums is also an integral part of all religious ceremonies and social functions. The men dance sword and shield in hand, interspersing the bodily movements with shouts of Kai, Kai. Men and women dance together in some dances and separately in others.

Garo dances are however rather tame compared with those of the Nagas or even the Lushais.

The only musical instruments used are those mentioned above, namely drums, wind instruments made of horn or bamboo, brass gongs and cymbals.

Besides drinking and dancing they have hardly any other form of communal amusements, games being generally trials of physical strength only and not of skill or dexterity. Hunting and fishing are popular but hunting is hardly ever done with weapons. The usual method is to set traps which are often dangerous to human beings. In catching fish which is their favourite item of food, the Garos use similar methods of trapping by building weirs across streams and rivers, but in the Someswari river one comes across the sight of Garos killing fish in running water with spears made of bamboo. The Garos of this area are experts in this form of fishing.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO PEOPLE - FOOD AND DRINK

Naga Chilli

Rice is the main food and it is eaten three times a day. So far as animal food is concerned the Garos eat almost everything—goats, pigs, fowls, ducks, dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, bats, and even flying white-ants. Elephant's flesh is highly prized. The only line drawn is at the Tiger's flesh. Dried fish called nakam is a daily dish.

A local Naga Market

As with the other hill-tribes, drink is an indispensable part of life, although Christianity is interfering with it perhaps to an undesirable extent. The liquor is not distilled but is always brewed out of rice, maize or millet. Apart from its daily use, drinking in profuse quantities is a must in religious ceremonies and at feasts, the prestige of a nokma or any other person of importance being dependent on the quality and quantity of drinks served on such occasions in addition to the abundance of solids.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO PEOPLE - CROPS

The Garo is essentially a cultivator. "Cultivating the soil," says Major Playfair, "with him is the beginning and the end of his life's work, and the occupation to which he devotes all the energy he possesses."

Like the other hill-tribes of Assam they follow the destructive jhumming method of cultivation. An extensive area covered by valuable trees is chosen each year for an entire village, the trees are felled and after allowing sometime for the timber to dry the entire area is destroyed by fire. After manuring the land in this fashion, seeds are broadcast. Similar treatment is given to another area the following year. As land in the possession of a particular village is limited in area the villagers have to go back to the same land after some years (the jhumming cycle) and destroy once again the trees which in the meantime have grown. Because of growth of population the jhumming cycle is gradually becoming shorter and shorter, from ten or twelve years to five or even three years. The soil erosion caused by this method of cultivation is enormous. Unless this devastation of virgin forests can be stopped by replacing the present methods of cultivation by permanent ones, such as terracing as practiced by the Angami Nagas, most of these hill areas will turn, in the not distant future into the deserts unfit for human habitation.

The principal crop is rice which is also the staple food.

Millets, maize, vegetables, ginger and indigo are grown extensively. Cashew- nuts and tapioca have been recently introduced. But the most important crop next to rice is cotton, abundant cultivation of which gives the Garos an economic advantage over the other hill- tribes of Assam. By far the largest part of the wealth of the Garos comes from this product. Lac is also cultivated in several parts of the district.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO - DRESS

The Garo dress is simple. The man's attire consists of a loin cloth, six or seven feet long and about six inches wide. A blouse is sometimes worn to cover the upper part of the body but more commonly it is left bare except in winter when it is covered with a wrapper of blue cotton cloth. A turban, which is generally worn, goes round leaving the top of the head bare. The woman's attire is similar—a cloth about a foot and half long and about a foot wide round the waist, sometimes a blouse or a wrapper and a turban, but except during the cold weather the upper part of the body is not encumbered by any covering.

Such exposure, especially on the part of buxom young females, gives to outsiders (particularly young people) at first sight a funny sensation. The loin cloths are some times ornamented with beads or cowries. Both men and women are very fond of ear-rings, the women wearing up to fifty of them, the weight of which distend the ear-lobes, sometimes splitting them in two. On festive occasions and when dancing, both men and women ornament their head-dress with rows of beads and stick to them feathers of the bhimraj (horn-bill). Brass or silver bangles are popular with men as well as women. Important persons like nokmas (headmen of villages or clans) wear a heavy ring of iron above the elbow, which is called jaksil. A belt covered with beads completes the attire. The men are often seen carrying weapons—spears or swords.

HISTORY OF SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF GAROS

As regards the history of the Garos, practically nothing is known. They are no doubt still very primitive. Till recently they were regarded as nothing more than cruel, blood-thirsty savages, this notoriety having been gained by them as a result of frequent and numerous raids carried out by them on the people of the neighbouring plains districts. On the occasion of each such raid a number of people were killed and their heads carried off as trophies, head- hunting having been with them as with the Nagas, their most favourite pastime. Apart from this killing for sheer fun, human victims were required for sacrificial purposes also. The sacrifices were made to propitiate the gods after a fateful event such as the death of nokma (the head of a village or a clan). Similar human sacrifices were performed by the Jaintias of the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills District. The stone on which the victims were decapitated can still be seen on the bank of the Kopili river (See the Picture below)

near Garampani in the Jaintia Hills(See the Picture below) .

Head-hunting was effectively stopped in the Garo Hills as late as 1876 only. in that year not less than two hundred skulls were surrendered by the Garos to the Deputy Commissioner or in his camp at a place called Rangrengiri, a few miles from Tura, the district headquarters of the Garo Hills District. It was due mainly to these depredations that the British, whose policy till then was to leave the hill-tribes alone (because of absence of potentialities of exploitation of resources in these barren areas), were compelled to occupy the land of the Garos physically in 1872, along with the effective extension of their administration to the rest of Assam. Prior to this, Goalpara, including Garo Hills, but excluding Eastern Duars, was administered from Rangpur in Bengal and as such formed a part of the province of Bengal, which by the Mughal Emperor's farman of the 12th August 1765, was transferred to the East India Company. It became a part of Assam in 1874, when Assam was constituted into a separate Chief Commissioner's province.
Since then, till shortly after independence, when tribal District Councils were established, the Garo Hills District was administered by a Deputy Commissioner, who was more or less the final authority in all matters, judicial and executive. He was, however, only some kind of an overlord. The villagers themselves managed their affairs with the help of village elders. A group of villages elects a Laskar for life and he functions as a magistrate for the purpose of petty cases (serious crimes are rare). Real power is, however, exercised not by the Laskars but by the heads of clans called Nokmas who elect the Laskars. This system worked democratically and efficiently; but with the establishment of the District Councils authority is gradually shifting from the villages to the centralised headquarters at Tura. It is doubtful if this is proving beneficial for the common man.

PROCESS OF ASSIMILATION WITH THE ASSAMESE IN NORTH EASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

All these tribes, as a result of living in the plains under the suzerainty of Assamese kings and coming under the influence of Hinduism, have become completely assimilated with the Assamese. Although the older folk are still to some extent bilingual, complete disappearance of their tribal languages is only a matter of time like the disappearance of the languages of the once powerful Ahoms (See the Picture below)

(The Ahoms are an important branch of the Tai people.(See the Picture below)

The Tai-Ahoms entered the Brahmaputra valley from the east, from Moung Mao in China through the Shan states of Burma, in the early part of the thirteenth century ) and the Chutiyas and numerous other races which had been inundating from time immemorial the fertile and alluring valleys of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
This process of assimilation did not extend to the hill-tribes mainly because of the inaccessibility of their habitat. There is little doubt that with the development of communications the same process would have taken place amongst the Garos (as has been happening before our eyes amongst the Mikirs) but for the advent of the British and in their wake the Christian missionaries, who in their zeal to preserve 'the separateness and originality' of the hill-tribes and to civilize them, admirably succeeded in dividing them from the people of the plains. The consequences of this civilizing zeal have become painfully visible today in the demand for a separate hill-state by the Garos and other hill-tribes of Assam.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH EASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

As regards their physical features, the following picturesque description given by Colonel Dalton in his 'Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal' could not perhaps be improved upon. "Their fates are round and short. The forehead is not receding, but projects very little beyond the eye, which is small, on a level with the face, very dark and obliquely set. The want of prominence in the nose is remarkable. The whole face has the appearance of being flattened out, the mouth sharing in the compressed appearance and not at all prognathous." The average height of the male would be just above five feet and that of the female 4-3/4 ft.A few more characteristics added by Major Playfair would make the description complete:
"The women are not beautiful, especially when they pass middle age, but when young they are buxom and healthy in appearance and their good natured smiling faces are far from unattractive. A great disfigurement is the distension of their ears by the weight of enormous ear-rings, which often break the lobes in two. The men rarely have hair on their faces though some grow apologies for beards. If a moustache is worn, it usually consists of a few hairs on either side of the upper lip, owing to the custom of pulling out the rest."

This description of physical features would apply with equal aptness to most of the tribals inhabiting the plains of Assam, particularly the Kacharis.

"garos" From Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal 1872, engravings with modern hand coloring

"kachari" From Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal 1872, engravings with modern hand coloring

LINGUISTIC RESEMBLANCES AMONG NORTH EAST TRIBES

The Garos(see the Picture Above) belong to the linguistic stock called by ethnologists the Tibeto-Burman. They have close linguistic affinity with tribal races inhabiting the plains of Assam, the North Cachar Hills and parts of Tripura. Grierson, in his Linguistic Survey of india, encadres the languages of all these tribe under a single group called the Bodo.(see the Picture Below)

Among all these tribes, the Garos bear the strongest resemblances linguistically as well as physically to the Kacharis(see the Picture Below).

In fact the resemblances are so strong that they have led Major Playfair to believe that these two tribes originally constituted one, subsequently separating themselves into two, the Kacharis spreading over the North and the Garos over the south bank of the Brahmaputra. In support of this view he points out the similarity between the monoliths of Dimapur (Manipur Road) ,(see the Picture Below)

the ancient capital of the Kachari Kingdom and the Kimas or memorial posts which the Garos erect in memory of their dead. But this, as Major Playfair himself admits, is a comparison of the great with the small.

In his attempts to trace the origin of the Garos, Major Playfair further observes: "One of the evangelists of the American Baptist Mission in Tura (a Garo) who spent some time in the Ao country (Nagaland), told me that he had been asked by some Aos if he was not one of the descendants of a party of 700 Aos who left their country and travelled westward in the long forgotten past." Certain features common to the Nagas (see the Picture Below)

and Garos in the performance of their funeral ceremonies (the practice of tethering a bull to a Y shaped post before it is sacrificed) and other customs, especially the practice of head-hunting, point towards a link between Nagas and the Garos. Head-hunting was never in vogue amongst any other tribe in this region except amongst these two. Major Play fair surmises from these facts that the Garos probably inhabited originally some area near Dimapur and there, because of proximity, picked up some of the Naga customs and habits.

ORIGIN OF GARO TRIBES

THE GAROS inhabit the Garo Hills District on the western extremity of Assam adjoining the Mymensingh District of Bangladesh. Besides, there are large groups of Garos in the contiguous plains areas of the Districts of Goalpara
and Kamrup in Assam. A sizeable population also lives in the Mymensingh District of Bangladesh. About a lakh of these Mymensingh plains Garos— mostly Christians—migrated to Assam in the beginning of 1964 due to systematic persecution in Pakistan. Some thousands of these unfortunate people, deprived suddenly of their hearth and home, have been rehabilitated in the Garo Hills and thousands are still awaiting rehabilitation in a huge refugee camp at a place called Matia in the Goalpara District of Assam. The Garo Hills District has an area of three thousand square miles.
The Garos call themselves achik-mande (achik = hill; mande = man) just as the Lushais (another hill-tribe of Assam) call them selves Mizos (Mi = man, zo =hill). The original home of the Garos is not known. They themselves believe that their original homeland was in Tibet.
A legend to this effect has persisted amongst the Garos for generations. In his monograph on the Garos, Major Playfair points out certain linguistic resemblances between the Tibetan and the Garo tongues and also refers to the reverence which the Garos, like the Tibetans have for gongs and the value they attach to the Yak’s tail, although the animal never inhabited these hills. But such scrappy pieces of evidence are not sufficient for establishing a historical connection of the Garos with Tibet. It is more probable that like most of the plains tribals of Assam, the Garos moved into their present habitat through the north-eastern routes from China and Upper Burma. This movement was part of a great Mongolian influx into this part of India in prehistoric times. It is not merely possible, but very probable, that the movement started originally from Tibet and other parts of the Western China.

CHANGES IN SOCIAL STRUCTURE AFTER INDEPENDENCE OF NORTHEASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

Since independence, the tone and color of administration in the hills have undergone a complete metamorphosis. The establishment of the District Councils under the sixth schedule to the Constitution suddenly brought party-politics into the hills where it was unknown before. In addition, the creation of numerous new government departments, and as a result of the induction of hordes of officers from the plains, with hardly any service to render to the people and with hardly any coordinating agency to regulate their activities, practically destroyed over night the old, strong, efficient administrative set up and disrupted the life of the people.
From this point of view the abolition of the institution of Chiefs in the Lushai Hills was perhaps a premature and unfortunate step, the consequences of which are seen in the disturbances which are now shaking the once happy and smiling land of the Mizos. Be that as it may, the greatest harm caused to the hill peoples by the new dispensation was the damage and degradation caused to their character. The most outstanding characteristic of these people had always been their strong spirit of self-help and self-reliance. They made and maintained village paths, constructed school, church and hospital buildings, wells, water tanks, play-grounds and did other works of public utility voluntarily without remuneration. These were community projects in the true sense of the term. The establishment of development blocks, on a stereotyped all-India pattern,without taking local conditions and the temper of the people into account and the liberal doling out of grants, loans and subsidies in the name of community development have now completely changed the picture. The people now not only refuse to perform any of the tasks mentioned above without payment, but these doles have affected their attitudes to such an extent that they have stopped giving proper attention even to their rice fields, knowing that if crops fail, free or at least subsidized rice would be made available by 'Government'. Extracting some thing out of 'Government' for nothing has in fact become a practice with them and it is looked upon as a creditable performance. These once sturdy, self-respecting and self-reliant people have thus been so demoralized and corrupted that they do not hesitate to resort to chicanery for obtaining gifts which they look upon as graft for keeping them quiet and peaceable.

Mass conversion to Christianity has been another disrupting, demoralizing, devitalizing and denationalizing factor affecting the life and character of the hill-people. To elaborate the point, the instance of the Deka-changs (Youngmen's village club houses) called Nok-pates in the Garo Hills, Zawlbuks in the Lushai Hills. Morungs in the Naga villages and the Maro by the Mikirs can be given. These Deka-changs are an excellent institution and a distinctive feature of every tribal village. These clubs where young boys have to serve and obey the older boys, besides being associated with agricultural, social and almost all other activities of the village community, instilled into the youth discipline, respect for and obedience to elders, a spirit of service to the community and a number of other admirable qualities.

The village youths belonging to the club work in the fields together, a portion being allotted to each house. Work is enforced by penalties. In the Mikir Hills, in the olden days, it is said, shirkers were roasted alive. Now-a-days, of course, such drastic punishment cannot be meted out. Nevertheless, severe beatings are often given. The boys of the Maro, or Zawlbuk or Morung are in great demand for social services also, especially tasks and ceremonies connected with the dead. Dancing and singing are also practiced in these clubs, which keep old ways and customs alive.
It is a pity that these clubs are gradually becoming a thing of the past.
Wholesale and indiscriminate imposition of alien institutions on primitive races is a practice which cannot be too strongly condemned. It sort of tears them away from their roots, breeding in them contempt for their own race and racial traditions, causing a loss of pride and self-respect and turning them into unnatural specimens of humanity ill-at-ease everywhere, at home nowhere. By disrupting tribal foundations and destroying an age-old way of life, not inferior to any other, it engenders in them a sense of frustration or ennui and an indefinable fear about the future, a kind of mental unrest which finds expression periodically in violent eruptions as in the Naga and Mizo Hills.

SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF NORTHEASTERN INDIAN TRIBES BEFORE INDEPENDENCE

The most remarkable feature about tribal life in the hills of Assam is the fundamentally democratic basis of their social and administrative organizations. With minor exceptions, the land belongs to the community and not to any individual. Although in the Garo Hills the Nokma (the head of a clan or a village), in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills the Siem or the Doloi or the Raja, and in the Lushai Hills, till recently, the Chief was the nominal proprietor of all lands within his jurisdiction, every villager could cultivate his plot of land anywhere as a matter of right. In society, there is no distinction between high and low. Wealth and income do not confer social privileges. The once powerful Lushai Chief and the Khasi Siem, who were regarded by neighboring peoples as Raja or King, were as much commoners as the humblest of the humble. The rich is always ready to help those of their co-villagers who are in need and the strong is similarly inclined to the weak. In fact the Lushai Chief, who wielded enormous authority over his subjects, was the de jure father of the villagers over whom he ruled. In times of scarcity, if the villagers committed robbery of grain from the Chief's granary, they committed no offense.
This democratic spirit was strongly reflected in the indigenous tribal administrative organizations. The Khasi Siems were constitutional monarchs. They can hardly ever give any decision independently. It is his myntries (ministers) who generally decide all matters for him. Although the Lushai Chiefs were more powerful and sometimes autocratic, they could disregard the advice of their upas (village elders) only at their own risk. Thus, in spite of the Chiefs and the Siems being chosen on the hereditary principle their administration was thoroughly democratic. In other areas, such as the North Cachar Hills, both the hereditary and the elective principles are followed side by side by different tribes in choosing the chief or the leader. Disputes are heard in open court where all the male members of the village take part. In some areas even the women are allowed to be present at the trial of cases. The judgment passed on an offender is regarded as a judgment of the whole village and not merely of the chief and his advisers. This system of administration suited the genius of the people and they were happy under it. The British, with their experience of administration over half the world, were wise enough not to interfere with the indigenous administrative machinery. Administration was left almost entirely to the village headmen and the elders, the Deputy Commissioner and the Sub-Divisional Officer merely sitting over them as superintendents and intervening only in serious matters, such as a dispute over the boundary between one village and another, or cases of a seriously criminal or political nature.

RELIGIOUS AFFINITY TO HINDUISM OF NORTHEASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

It may be stated that the greater number of the Khasis, especially in certain siemships, viz. Cherra, Nongkren and Mylliem, still regard the thlen and the persons who are thought to keep thlens, with the greatest awe and that they will not utter even the names of the latter for fear some ill may befall them. The superstition is probably of very ancient origin, and it is possible that the Khasi sacrifices to the thlen demon may be connected with the primeval serpent god which characterized the religion of the Cambodians, which Forbes says was 'undoubtedly the earliest religion of the Mons.'"
Such extraordinary local variations of religious practices not withstanding, the animistic religion of the hill-tribes have the common feature of having strong affinity to Hinduism. They all believe in a Supreme Being (e.g. the Pathian of the Lushais and Tatara Rabunga of the Garos), subordinate to whom there are numerous gods and spirits who have to be propitiated with sacrifices of animals and birds for warding off evil and calamities. From these beliefs and practices it would be safe to assume that the Tantrik form of Hinduism, which originated in the plains of Assam around the temple of Kamakhya, greatly influenced the tribal religions. To put it in another way, this form of Hinduism contains features which are tribal and which were probably adopted by Brahmin priests for winning over their tribal neighbors, the most characteristic feature of Hinduism having been throughout the ages assimilation rather than conversion. There never was on the part of Hindus any overt effort at any time to convert others to their faith. There is little doubt that but for the advent of the British, and in their wake that of Christian missionaries, all the tribes would have been assimilated into the Assamese Hindu fold like numerous other tribes before them, who came and settled in Assam, the Kacharis and the Ahoms being the most notable examples.

SUPERSTITION BEHIND HUMAN SACRIFICE IN NORTHEASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

The practice of human sacrifice among the Khasis is an extra ordinary institution. There is a superstition among the Khasis about a gigantic snake called 'U Thlen' which has to be appeased by the sacrifice of human victims. The following account taken from Colonel Gurdon's book will give an idea of this blood-curdling institution:
"The tradition is that there was once in a cave near Cherrapunji a gigantic snake, or thlen, who committed great havoc among men and animals. At last one man, bolder than his fellows, took with him a herd of goats and set himself down by the cave and offered them one by one to the thlen. By degrees the monster became friendly and learnt to open his mouth at a word from the man to receive the lump of flesh which was then thrown in. When confidence was thoroughly established, the man, acting under the advice of a god called U Suid-Noh (who has as his abode a grove near Sohrarim), having heated a lump of iron red-hot in a furnace, induced the snake, at the usual signal, to open his mouth, and then threw in the red-hot lump and so killed him. He proceeded to cut up the body and sent pieces in every direction with orders that the people were to eat them. Wherever the order was obeyed, the country became free of the thlen, but one small piece remained which no one could eat, and from this sprang a multitude of thlens, which infest the residents of Cherra and its neighbourhood. When a thlen takes up its abode in a family there is no means of getting rid of it, though it occasionally leaves of its own accord and often follows family property that is given away or sold. The thlen attaches itself to property and brings prosperity and wealth to the owners, but on the condition that it is supplied with blood. Its craving comes on at uncertain intervals and manifests itself by sickness, by misadventure or by increasing poverty befalling the family that owns the property. It can only be appeased by the murder of a human being. The murderer cuts off the tips of the hair of the victim with silver scissors, also the finger nails, and extracts from the nostril a little blood caught in a bamboo tube, and offers these to the thlen. The murderer, who is called u nongshohnoh, literally 'the beater', before he sets out on his unholy mission, drinks a special kind of liquor called, ka 'iad tang-shi-snem (literally, liquor which has been kept for a year). This liquor, it is thought, gives the murderer courage and the power of selecting suitable victims for the thlen. The nongshohnoh then sets out armed with a short club, with which to slay the victim; hence his name nong-shohnoh i.e. one who beats; for it is forbidden to kill a victim on these occasions with any weapon made of iron, inasmuch as iron was the metal which proved fatal to the thlen. He also takes the pair of silver scissors above mentioned, a silver lancet to pierce the inside of the nostrils of the deceased, and a small bamboo or cylinder to receive the blood drawn there from. The nongshohnoh also provides himself with rice called u khaw tyndep' , i.e. rice mixed with turmeric after certain incantations have taken place. The murderer throws a little of this rice over his intended victim, the effect of which is to stupefy the latter, who then falls an easy prey to the nongshohnoh. It is not, however, always possible to kill the victim outright for various reasons, and then the nongshohnoh resorts to the following subterfuge. He cuts off a little of the hair or the hem on the garments of a victim, and offers these up to the thlen. The effect of cutting off the hair or the hem of the garment of a person by a nongshohnoh to offer up to the thlen is disastrous to the unfortunate victim, who soon falls ill and gradually wastes away and dies. The nongshohnoh also sometimes contents himself with merely throwing stones at the victim or with knocking at the door of his house at night, and then returns home, and, after invoking the thlen, informs the monster that he has tried his best to secure him a prey but has been unsuccessful. This is enough to appease the thlen for a time, but the demon does not remain inactive long and soon manifests his displeasure for the failure of his keeper to supply him with human blood, by causing one of the latter's family to fall sick. The thlen has the power of reducing himself to the size of a thread, which renders it convenient for the nong-ri-thlen, or thlen-keeper, to place him for safety in an earthen pot or in a basket which is kept in some secure place in the house. When the time for making an offering to the thlen comes, an hour is selected generally at dead of night, costly clothes are spread on the floor of the house of the thlen-keeper, all the doors are opened, and a brass plate is laid down on the ground in which is deposited the blood, or the hair, or a piece of the cloth of the victim. All the family then gathers round and an elderly member commences to beat a small drum, and invokes the thlen, saying, 'ko kni ko kpa (Oh, Maternal Uncle Father), come out, here is some food for you: we have done every thing we could to satisfy you and now we have been successful; give us thy blessing that we may attain health and prosperity.' The thlen then crawls out from its hiding-place and commences to expand, and when it has attained its full serpent shape, it comes near the plate and remains expectant. The spirit of the victim then appears and stands on the plate, laughing. The thlen begins to swallow the figure, commencing at its feet, the victim laughing the while. By degrees the whole figure is disposed of by the boa constrictor. If the spirit be that of a person from whom the hair or a piece of his or her cloth has been cut, directly after the thlen has swallowed the spirit, the person expires. Many families in these hills are known, or suspected, to be keepers of a thlen and are dreaded or avoided in consequence. This superstition is deep-rooted amongst these people, and even nowadays, in places like Shillong or Cherrapunji, Khasis are afraid to walk alone after dark for fear of being attacked by a nongshohnoh. In order to drive away the thlen from a house or family, all the money, ornaments and property of that house or family must be thrown away, as is the case with persons possessed by the demon Ka Taroh, in the Jaintia Hills. None dare touch any of the property, for fear that the thlen should follow it. It is believed that a thlen can never enter the Siem's or Chief's clan, or the Siem's house; it follows, therefore, that the property of the thlen keeper can be appropriated by the Siem. A Mohammedan servant, not long ago in Shillong, fell a victim to the charms of a Khasi girl and went to live with her. He told the following story to one of his fellow-servants, which may be set down here to show that the thlen superstition is by no means dying out. 'In the course of his married life he came to know that the mother of his Khasi wife kept in the house what he called a bhut (devil). He asked his wife many many times to allow him to see the bhut, but she was obdurate; after a long time, however, and after extracting many promises from him not to tell, she confided to him the secret and took him to the corner of the house and showed him a little box in which was coiled a tiny snake, like the hair spring of a watch. She passed her hand over it and it grew in size till at last it became a huge cobra with hood erected. The husband, terrified, begged his wife to lay the spirit. She passed her hands down its body and it gradually shrank within its box."

HUMAN SACRIFICE IN TRIBAL CULTURE

Besides hunting, fishing etc., a popular pastime of the Garos and the Nagas till recent times was head-hunting. Apart from killing human beings in their raids on the plains for sheer fun, human victims were required for sacrificial purposes also. Head-hunting was effectively stopped in the Garo Hills as late as 1876 only. In that year as many as two hundred skulls were surrendered by the Garos to the Deputy Commissioner in his camp at a place called Rongrengiri, a few miles from Tura, the district headquarters.
There is no evidence of head-hunting having been practiced by any of the other tribes except perhaps the Kukis. The Lushais also raided the plains frequently before their land was occupied by the British, but they were satisfied with carrying off captives and were not after heads. Human sacrifices were, however, common in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, especially among the Jaintias who might have borrowed the practice from Tantrik Hindus of the plains. Such sacrifices are known to have been practised in the temple of Kamkhya near Guwahati and particularly by the Hinduised Miris, in the temple of the dread goddess Tamreswari near Sadiya. Colonel Gurdon, however, expresses the opinion that these sacrifices were originally made to the river Kopili, which the Jaintias worshipped as a goddess. The stone on which the victims were decapitated can still be seen on the bank of the Kopili river near Garampani in the Jaintia Hills.