ellion firearms were used, to some extent, by the Syntengs. The
military records do not, however, disclose any peculiar battle customs
as having been prevalent amongst those hill people then. Both Khasis
and Syntengs seem to have fought much in the same manner as other
savage hill-men have fought against a foe armed with superior weapons.

Human Sacrifices.

The Thlen Superstition.

There is a superstition among the Khasis concerning _U thlen_,
a gigantic snake which requires to be appeased by the sacrifice
of human victims, and for whose sake murders have even in fairly
recent times been committed. The following account, the substance
of which appeared in the _Assam Gazette_, in August, 1882, but to
which considerable additions have been made, will illustrate this
interesting superstition:--"The tradition is that there was once
in a cave near Cherrapunji, [25] 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_, [26] (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 would 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