reat grandmother's lock. At Nartiang betel-nut,
which has been chewed by one of the mourners is put into the mouth
of the corpse, also cooked rice. There is a similar custom prevalent
amongst the Khyrwangs. The Nongtungs, in the Jaintia Hills, keep dead
bodies sometimes as long as a month, until the _phur_ or ceremonial
dance has been performed. Hence they are called Nong-tung, or
"stinkers." Amongst the Lynngams the dead body is kept for sometimes
three or four months, or up to the time when a bull can be procured
for a feast to the villagers. This feast is an essential, and,
cattle being scarce in the Lynngam country, there is often great
delay in disposing of the body. Lynngam villages at such a time are
best avoided. The Lynngams of Nongsohbar bury the unburnt bones of the
deceased within the village, and in front of the house occupied by the
deceased when alive; the bones being placed in a hole in the ground,
over which is laid a stone, a bamboo mat being nailed over the stone. A
bamboo fence three or four feet high is erected round the grave. Other
Lynngams bury the uncalcined bones and ashes in a gourd in the jungle
near the burning-place. On their way home, the members of the clan of
the deceased who have come from other villages to witness the funeral
obsequies, put up a stone on the path in honour of the deceased, a
turban being tied round the top of the stone. The Garos or Dkos, who
live at the foot of the hills on the Kamrup border, and are called by
the Assamese _Hana_ (spear-men), erect memorial stones in honour of the
deceased, the lower jaw-bones of sacrificial animals and other articles
being hung on the stones. The stones are also swathed in cloths, and
turbans are tied round the tops. The death customs of the Lynngams,
and, indeed, other customs also, are partly Khasi and partly Garo,
it being difficult to say that the Lynngams are more Khasi than Garo,
or more Garo than Khasi in this respect; their language, however; has
been found by Dr. Grierson to be a corruption of Khasi. In Nongstoin,
Mawlih, and Mariaw villages, the inhabitants of which profess to be
Khasis, the bones and ashes of the deceased are not collected and
placed in repositories, as at Cherrapunji. At Mariaw and Nongstoin
a large wooden coffin is used, painted white, with ornamentations on
the outside, and standing on four legs. This coffin is not burnt on
the funeral pyre. In the family of the chiefs of Cherra, the body
of a deceased S