gious Rites and Sacrifices, Divination 116-120
Priesthood 120-124
Ceremonies and Customs attending Birth and Naming of Children
124-127
Marriage 127-132
Ceremonies attending Death 132-139
Disposal of the Dead 140-144
Khasi Memorial Stones 144-154
Festivities, Domestic and Tribal 154-157
Genna 158-159

Section V.--Folk-Lore.

Folk-tales 160-187

Section VI.--Miscellaneous.

Teknonomy 188
Khasi Method of Calculating Time 188-190
The Lynngams 190-197

Section VII.--Language 198-215
Appendices.

A--Exogamous Clans in the Cherra State 216-217
B--Exogamous Clans in the Khyrim State 218-220
C--Divination by Egg-Breaking 221-222

Index 223-227

Introduction

In 1908 Sir Bampfylde Fuller, then Chief Commissioner of Amman,
proposed and the Government of India sanctioned, the preparation
of a series of monographs on the more important tribes and castes
of the Province, of which this volume is the first. They were to be
undertaken by writers who had special and intimate experience of the
races to be described, the accounts of earlier observers being at the
same time studied and incorporated; a uniform scheme of treatment was
laid down which was to be adhered to in each monograph, and certain
limits of size were prescribed.

Major Gurdon, the author of the following pages, who is also, as
Superintendent of Ethnography in Assam, editor of the whole series,
has enjoyed a long and close acquaintance with the Khasi race,
whose institutions he has here undertaken to describe. Thoroughly
familiar with their language, he has for three years been in charge
as Deputy-Commissioner of the district where they dwell, continually
moving among them, and visiting every part of the beautiful region
which is called by their name. The administration of the Khasi and
Jaintia Hills is an exceptionally interesting field of official
responsibility. About half of the district, including the country
around the capital, Shillong, is outside the limits of British India,
consisting of a collection of small states in political relations,
regulated by treaty with the Government of India, which enjoy almost
complete autonomy in the management of their local affairs. In
the remainder, called the Jaintia Hills, which became British in
1835, it has been the wise policy of the Government to maintain
the indigenous system of administration through officers named
_dolois_, who p