s children, however,
would belong to the clan of his wife, and there would, therefore, in
ordinary cases be no bar to the nephew marrying one of them. Marriage
with the daughters of a father's sister is not allowed during the
lifetime of the father, but after the latter's death there is no
religious ban, although such unions are looked upon with disfavour by
the Khasis. In the War country, however, such marriages are totally
prohibited. A Khasi cannot marry two sisters, but he can marry his
deceased wife's sister after the expiry of one year from the wife's
death, on payment of _jing sang_ (price of _sang_, or taboo) to
the wife's clan. A Khasi cannot marry the daughter of his father's
brother, she is his _para kha_ (lit. birth sister). Similarly he
cannot marry the daughter of his father's paternal uncle. He can,
however, marry the daughter of his mother's brother, provided that
the brother is dead. This somewhat paradoxical state of affairs
is explained by the fact that the children of the mother's brother
belong to a different clan to that of the mother, i.e. to the mother's
brother's wife's clan. The Khasi, Synteng, War, and Lynngam divisions
are not strictly endogamous groups, and there is nothing to prevent
intermarriage between them. For instance, it has been the custom in
the Nongkhlaw Siem family to obtain husbands for the princesses of
the state from the War country. There is no custom amongst the Khasis
of two men exchanging daughters, i.e. each marrying his son to the
other's daughter. Notwithstanding the existence of the matriarchate,
and the fact that all ancestral property is vested in the mother,
it would be a mistake to suppose that the father is a nobody in the
Khasi house. It is true that the _kni_, or mother's elder brother,
is the head of the house, but the father is the executive head of
the new home, where, after children have been born to him, his wife
and children live with him. It is he who faces the dangers of the
jungles, and risks his life for wife and children. In his wife's clan
he occupies a very high place, he is second to none but _u kni_, the
maternal uncle, while in his own family circle a father and husband is
nearer to his children and his wife than _u kni_. The Khasi saying is,
"_u kpa uba lah ban iai, u kni uba tang ha ka iap ka im_," which may
be translated freely as, "the father bears the heat and burden of the
day, the maternal uncle only comes when it is a question of life or