case perform the ceremony of handing over
the bones of their father to his clan in a building specially erected
for the purpose. The widow cannot enter therein, or even go near it,
whilst the ceremony is proceeding, no matter whether the _jing sang_,
or the price for removing the taboo after a husband's death, has been
paid to the husband's clan or not. There is no evidence to show that
polyandry ever existed amongst the Khasis. Unlike the Thibetans,
the Khasi women seem to have contented themselves always with one
husband, at any rate with one at a time. Certainly at the present
day they are monandrists. Polygamy does not exist amongst the Khasis;
such a practice would naturally not be in vogue amongst a people who
observe the matriarchate. There are instances, however, of men having
wives other than those they have regularly married, and in the War
country children by such wives enjoy rights to their father's acquired
property equally with the children by the legally married wife. As
the clans are strictly exogamous, a Khasi cannot take a wife from
his own clan; to do this would entail the most disastrous religious,
as well as social consequences. For to marry within the clan is the
greatest sin a Khasi can commit, and would cause excommunication
by his kinsfolk and the refusal of funeral ceremonies at death,
and his bones would not be allowed a resting-place in the sepulchre
of the clan. To give a list of all the Khasi exogamous clans would
perhaps serve no useful purpose, but I have prepared from information,
kindly furnished me by the Siems of Khyrim and Cherrapunji, a list
of the clans in those States which will be found in Appendices A and
B. These will suffice as examples. It will be seen from the Cherra
list that the different divisions of the Diengdoh clan, viz. Lalu,
Diengdoh-bah, Diengdoh-kylla, are prohibited from intermarriage;
this is due to those branches of the clan being descended from a
common ancestress. There are other instances of clans being connected
with one another, such connection being called by the Khasis _iateh
kur_. Whenever such connection exists, intermarriage is strictly
prohibited, and is considered to be _sang_. There is no custom of
hypergamy. A Khasi cannot marry his maternal uncle's daughter during
the lifetime of the maternal uncle. This is probably due to the fact
that the maternal uncle, or _kni_, in a Khasi household is regarded
more in the light of a father than of an uncle. Hi