ssamese _riha_
(Boehmeria nivea). These bags are of two sizes, the larger one for
keeping cowries id, the cowrie in former days having been used instead
of current coin in these hills, the smaller far the ever necessary
betel-nut. _Pan_ leaves are kept in a bamboo tube, and tobacco leaves
in a smaller one. Lime, for eating with betel-nut, is kept in a metal
box, sometimes of silver, which is made in two separate parts held
together by a chain. The box is called _ka shanam_, and is used all
over the hills. This box is also used for divination purposes, one end
of it being held in the hand, and the other, by means of the chain,
being allowed to swing like a pendulum. An explanation of this method
of divination will be found in the paragraph dealing with divination.

There is also a pair of squeezers used by the old and toothless for
breaking up betel-nut. In the houses of the well-to-do is to be seen
the ordinary hubble-bubble of India. Outside the houses of cultivators
are wooden troughs hollowed out of the trunks of trees, which are used
either as drinking troughs for cattle or for feeding pigs. A special
set of utensils is used for manufacturing liquor. The Synteng and
War articles of furniture and utensils are the same as those of the
Khasis, with different names, a remark which applies also to those of
the Bhois and Lynngams. Both the latter, however, use leaves as plates,
the Bhoi using the wild plantain and the Lynngam a large leaf called
_ka 'la mariong_. The leaves are thrown away after eating, fresh leaves
being gathered for each meal. The Lynngams use a quilt (_ka syllar_)
made out of the bark of a tree of the same name as a bed covering. This
tree is perhaps the same as the Garo _simpak_. In the Bhoi and Lynngam
houses the swinging shelf for keeping firewood is not to be seen, nor
is the latter to be found amongst the submontane Bodo tribes in Assam.

Musical Instruments.

The Khasis have not many musical instruments, and those that they
possess, with one or two exceptions, are of very much the same
description as those of the Assamese. There are several kinds of drums,
viz. _ka nakra_, which is a large kettledrum made of wood having the
head covered with deerskin; _ka ksing_, which is a cylindrically-shaped
drum rather smaller than the Assamese _dhol_ (_ka ksing kynthei_ takes
its name from the fact that this drum is beaten when women, _kynthei_,
dance), _ka padiah_, a small drum with a handle made of woo