to be met with almost everywhere in that
country. Yule, Dalton, and other writers have incidentally referred
to them, but, as far as is known at present, no attempt has been
made to explain in any detail what is the peculiar significance
of these objects to the Khasis. These stones are rightly styled
memorial stones; _kynmaw_, literally, "to mark with a stone," is the
word in the Khasi language for "to remember" The memorial stone,
in the ordinary sense of the word, is a memorial to the dead; but
we have such names of places in these hills as _Maomluh_, the salt
stone (the eating of salt off the blade of a sword being one of the
Khasi forms of oath), _Maosmai_, the oath stone, _Maophlang_, the
grassy stone, and others. To commemorate with a stone an important
event has been a constant custom amongst many people in many places,
and the erection of grave-stones, to mark the spot where the remains
of the dead are buried, is an almost universal practice amongst the
Western nations, as indeed amongst some of the Eastern also. But the
Khasi menhirs are no more gravestones, in the sense of marking the
place where the remains of the dead lie, than some of the memorials
of Westminster Abbey and other fanes; the Khasi stones are cenotaphs,
the remains of the dead being carefully preserved in stone sepulchres,
which are often some distance apart from the memorial stones. It is
proposed to treat this subject under the following heading:--

(1) A general description of the memorial stones in the Khasi
Hills, showing, that they are very similar in shape to monoliths,
table-stones, or cromlechs in other parts of the world and of India.

(2) A comparison between Khasi memorial stones and those of the
Ho-Mundas, the stones near Belgaum, those of the Mikirs, the monoliths
at Willong in the Manipur Hills, and the Dimapur monoliths.

(3) The meaning of the stones.

(4) The method of their erection.

With regard to the first heading, the stones may be divided, into
(_a_) menhirs, or vertical stones; (_b_) table-stones, or dolmens,
and (_c_) stone cromlechs, or cairns, which serve the purpose of
cineraria. Taking the different stones in order, the menhirs are
large upright stones varying in height from 2 or 3 ft. to 12 or
14 ft., but in exceptional instances rising to a more considerable
elevation, the great monolith at Nartiang, in the Jaintia Hills, being
27 ft. high, and 2 1/2 ft. thick. A photograph of this stone has been
included