oderate sum for one of them. Being
curious to see one of these gongs, I asked a _sirdar_, or head-man,
to show me one. He replied that he would do so, but it would take time,
as he always buried his gongs in the jungle for fear of thieves. Next
morning he brought me a gong of bell metal, with carvings of animals
engraved thereon. The gong when struck gave out a rich deep note
like that of Burmese or Thibetan gongs. These gongs have a regular
currency in this part of the hills, and represent to the Lynngams
"Bank of England" notes. It would be interesting to try to ascertain
what is their history, for no one in the Lynngam country makes them
in these days. Is it possible that the Garos brought them with them
when they migrated from Thibet? The gongs are well known in the Garo
Hills, and I hear that when a _nokma_, or head-man, there dies his
corpse is laid out upon them. They thus possess also an element of
sanctity, besides being valuable for what they will fetch to the
Garos or Lynngams. We may hope to hear more about them in Captain
Playfair's account of the Garos.

The Lynngams do not tattoo. Their weapons are the large-headed
Garo spear, the dao, and the shield. They do not usually carry bows
and arrows, although there are some who possess them. They are by
occupation cultivators. They sow two kinds of hill rice, red and white,
on the hill-sides. They have no wet paddy cultivation, and they do
not cultivate in terraces like the Nagas. They burn the jungle about
February, after cutting down some of the trees and clearing away some
of the debris, and then sow the paddy broadcast, without cultivating
the ground in any way. They also cultivate millet and Jobs-tears in
the same way. With the paddy chillies are sown the first year. The
egg plant, arum, ginger, turmeric, and sweet potatoes of several
varieties are grown by them in a similar manner. Those that rear the
lac insect plant _landoo_ tress (Hindi _arhal dal_) in the forest
clearings, and rear the insect thereon. Some of these people, however,
are prohibited by a custom of their own from cultivating the _landoo_,
in which case they plant certain other trees favourable to the growth
of the lac insect. The villages are situated near their patches of
cultivation in the forest. The villages are constantly shifting,
owing to the necessity of burning fresh tracts of forest every two
years. The houses are entirely built of bamboo, and, for such temporary
structures, are