emon by divesting himself
of all his property. He pulls down his house, burns the materials,
his clothes, and all his other worldly goods. Lands, flocks, and
herds are sold, the money realized by the sale being thrown away. No
one dares touch this money, for fear he should become possessed by
_ka Taroh_, it will be observed that, as in the case of the _thlen_,
the demon is believed to follow the property.

Mr. Jenkins, in his interesting little work on "Life and Work in
Khasia," gives a slightly different account of the superstition,
in that he states that it is the sick person who is possessed by _ka
Taroh_. The above belief is perhaps a Synteng development of the Khasi
_thlen_ superstition. In the Jaintia Hills "the small-pox" is believed
to be a goddess, and is reverenced accordingly. Syntengs regard it as
an honour to have had small-pox, calling the marks left by the disease
the "kiss of the goddess"; the more violent the attack and the deeper
the marks, the more highly honoured is the person affected. Mr. Jenkins
says, "When the goddess has entered a house, and smitten any person or
persons with this disease, a trough of clean water is placed outside
the door, in order that every one before entering may wash their feet
therein, the house being considered sacred." Mr. Rita mentions cases
of women washing their hair in water used by a small-pox patient, in
order that they may contract the disease, and women have been known
actually to bring their little children into the house of a small-pox
patient, in order that they may become infested and thus receive the
kiss of the goddess. It is possible that the Syntengs, who were for
some time under Hindu influences; may in their ignorance have adopted
this degraded form of worship of the Hindu goddess, "Sitala Devi,"
who is adored as a divine mother under different names by Hindus all
over India, cf., her name _mari-amman_, or mother of death, in the
South of India, and the name Ai, mother, of the Assamese.

In the Khasi Hills the god of small-pox is known under the name of
_u Siem niang thylliew_. He is not, however, appeased in any way,
the people calling on two other spirits, _Thynrei_ and _Sapa_,
to whom a fowl or a goat is offered. This section cannot be closed
without some reference to the household gods of the Syntengs. The
legend is that in ancient times there came a woman "from the end of
heaven to the borders of the country of _u Truh_" (the country of the
plain