very well built. In front, the houses are raised some
3 or 4 ft. from the ground on platforms, being generally built on
the side of a fairly steep hill, one end of the house resting on the
ground, and the other on bamboo posts. The back end of the house is
sometimes some 8 or 9 ft. from the ground. At the end of the house
farthest away from the village path is a platform used for sitting
out in the evening, and for spreading chillies and other articles to
dry. Some Lynngam houses have only one room in which men, women, and
children an all huddled together, the hearth being in the centre, and,
underneath the platform, the pigs. Well-to-do people, however, possess
a retiring room, where husband and wife sleep. A house I measured at
Nongsohbar village was of the following dimensions:--Length, 42 ft;
breadth, 16 ft.; height of house from the ground to the eaves, front,
9 ft.; back 18 ft. Houses are built with a portion of the thatch
hanging over the eaves in front. No explanation could be given me for
this. It is probably a Garo custom. In some Lynngam villages there
are houses in the centre of the village where the young unmarried
men sleep, where male guests are accommodated, and where the village
festivities go on. These are similar to the _dekachang_ or bachelors'
club-houses of the Mikirs, Garos, and Lalungs, and to the _morang_
of the Nagas. This is a custom of the Thibeto-Burman tribes in Assam,
and is not a Khasi institution. There are also high platforms, some
12 ft. or 15 ft. in height, in Lynngam villages, where the elders sit
of an evening in the hot weather and take the air. Lynngam houses and
villages are usually much cleaner than the ordinary Khasi villages,
and although the Lynngams keep pigs, they do not seems to be so
much _en evidence_ as in the Khasi village. There is little or no
furniture in a Lynngam house. The Lynngam sleeps on a mat on the
floor, and in odd weather covers himself with a quilt, made out of
the bark of a tree, which is beaten out and then carefully woven,
several layers of flattened bark being used before the right thickness
is attained. This quilt is called by the Lynngam "_Ka syllar_" (Garo
_simpak_). Food is cooked in earthen pots, but no plates are used,
the broad leaves of the _mariang_ tree taking their place. The leaves
are thrown away after use, a fresh supply being required for each meal.

The Lynngams brew rice beer, they do no distil spirit; the beer is
brewed according to