e groves where
the justly celebrated Khasi orange is grown, which is the source of
so much profit to these people. The houses in the War villages are
generally closer together than those of the Khasis, probably owing to
apace being limited, and to the villages being located on the slopes
of hills. Generally up the narrow village street, and from house
to house, there are rough steep stone steps, the upper portion of
a village being frequently situated at as high an elevation as 200
to 300 ft. above the lower. In a convenient spot in a War village
a clear space is to be seen neatly swept and kept free from weeds,
and surrounded with a stone wall, where the village tribunals sit,
and the elders meet in solemn conclave. Dances also are held here on
festive occasions. At Nongjri village there is a fine rubber tree,
under whose hollow trunk there are certain sacred stones where the
priest performs the village ceremonies.

The Bhoi and Lynngam villages are built in small clearings in
the forest, the houses are close together and are built often in
parallel lines, a fairly broad space being reserved between the
lines of houses to serve as a street. One misses the pretty gardens
of the War villages, for Bhois and Lynngams attempt nothing of the
sort, probably because, unlike the Khasi, a Bhoi or Lynngam village
never remains more than two or three years in one spot; generally the
villages of these people are in the vicinity of the forest clearings,
sometimes actually in the midst of them, more especially when the
latter are situated in places where jungle is dense, and there is fear
of attacks from wild animals. In the Lynngam village is to be seen a
high bamboo platform some 20 to 30 ft. from the ground, built in the
midst of the village, where the elders sit and gossip in the evening.

All the villages, Khasi, War, Lynngam and Bhoi, swarm with pigs,
which run about the villages unchecked. The pigs feed on all kinds
of filth, and in addition are fed upon the wort and spent wash of the
brewings of country spirit, of rice beer, the latter being carefully
collected and poured into wooden troughs. The pigs are of the usual
black description seen in India. They thrive greatly in the Khasi
villages, and frequently attain extreme obesity.

In the Khasi villages of the high plateaux are often nowadays potato
gardens, the latter being carefully protected from the inroads of pigs,
calves, and goats by dry dikes surmounted by hedges.