, as a rule, more than one _lyngdoh_; sometimes there
is quite a number of such priests, as in Nongkrem where there is a
_lyngdoh_ for each _raj_ or division of the state. There are a few
Khasi States where the priest altogether takes the place of the Siem,
and rules the community with the help of his elders in addition to
performing the usual spiritual offices. The duties of _lyngdohs_,
their methods of sacrificing, and the gods to whom they sacrifice,
vary in the different Siemships, but there is one point in which we
find agreement everywhere, i.e. that the _lyngdoh_ must be assisted at
the time of performing sacrifices by a female priestess, called _ka
soh-blei, ka soh-sla_, or simply _ka lyngdoh_. This female collects
all the _puja_ articles and places them ready to the _lyngdoh's_
hand at the time of sacrifice. He merely acts as her deputy when
sacrificing. The female _soh-blei_ is without doubt a survival of the
time when, under the matriarchate, the priestess was the agent for
the performance of all religious ceremonies. Another such survival is
the High Priestess of Nongkrem, who still has many religious duties
to perform; not only so, but she is the actual head of the State in
this Siemship, although she delegates her temporal powers to one of
her sons or nephews, who thus becomes Siem. A similar survival of the
ancient matriarchal religious system is the _Siem sad_, or priestess,
at Mawsynram, who, on the appointment of a new Siem or chief, has
to assist at certain sacrifices. Here we may compare Karl Pearson's
remark, when dealing with matriarchal customs, that "according to the
evidence of Roman historians, not only the seers but the sacrificers
among the early Teutons were women." The duties of the _lyngdohs_,
as regards communal worship, consist chiefly of sacrificing at times
of epidemics of cholera, and such-like visitations of sickness (_jing
iap khlam_). In the Khyrim State there is a goddess of each _raj_,
or division, of the state, to whom sacrifices are offered on such
occasions. To the goddess are sacrificed a goat and hen, powdered rice
(_u kpu_), and a gourd of fermented liquor; the leaves of the _dieng
sning_, or Khasi oak, are also used at this ceremony. The _lyngdoh_
is assisted by a priestess called _ka soh-sla_, who is his mother, or
his sister, or niece, or some other maternal relation. It is the duty
of the priestess to prepare all the sacrificial articles, and without
her assistance the s