as are offered, except that a sacrifice to _U Syngkai Bamon_
does not take place. In the case of one who has died at a distance from
his home, e.g. in a foreign country, whose body has not been burnt
in accordance with custom, and whose bones have not been collected,
the members of his clan, or his children, take three or five seeds or
cowries (_sbai_) to a place where three roads meet. Here they summon
the spirit of the departed in a loud voice, and throw up the seeds
or cowries into the air, and when they fall to the ground they say,
"_to alle noh ba ngin sa lum sa kynshew noh ia phi_," come now we
will collect you (the idea being that the seeds represent the bones
of the deceased). Having collected the seeds, they place them on
a bier and perform the service for the dead just in the same way
as if a real dead body were to hand. If possible a portion of the
dead person's clothes should be burnt with the seeds in the bier,
and it is with this view that the coats or cloths of Khasi coolies,
who die when employed as porters on military expeditions at a distance
from their homes, are brought back by their friends to give to the
relatives. If a person, dies of cholera, small-pox, or other such
infectious or contagious disease, the body is buried, but is dug up
again and burnt with all the customary rites when fear of infection
or contagion is over. In parts of the district upright stones called
_maw-umkoi_ are erected along the line of route when the remains of
a person who has met with an accidental death are brought home. This
is stated to be the case in the Rambrai Siemship.

Miscellaneous Customs in Connection with Death.

In Nongjri, a large village in the War Country, the dead body is
placed on a bier near the door of the house, a turban being tied
about the head, the face being left bare and turned towards the
door. In some of the Shella villages a second cremation is performed,
in which a bamboo frame-work represents the corpse. This second
cremation takes place when the body has been disposed of without the
requisite ceremonies. The bones and ashes of the dead in Shella are
in some cases kept in a cavity hollowed out of a post erected for
the purpose. The bones and ashes find a temporary resting-place here,
but are afterwards removed to a cromlech.

At Nartiang, in the Jaintia Hills, the head of the corpse is shaved,
but a tuft of hair in the middle of the head is left; this is called
(_u'niuh Iawbei_), the g