years by Manchester piece goods. The number of weavers returned at the
last census in the district was 533. The Khasis and Mikirs of the low
country, or Bhois as they are called, weave cotton cloths which they
dye with the leaves of a plant called _u noli_. This is perhaps the
wild indigo, or _ram_, of the Shan settlers in the Assam Valley. The
weavers are almost always females. An important means of subsistence
is road and building work; a considerable number of coolies, both male
and female, are employed under Government, practically throughout the
year, in this manner, the males earning on an average 8 annas and the
females 6 annas a day. Col Bivar writes that in 1875 the wages for
ordinary male labourers were 4 to 8 annas a day, and for females 21/2
to 4 annas, so that the wages rates have almost doubled in the last
thirty years. Contractors, however, often manage to obtain daily labour
at lower rates than those paid by Government. Stonemasons and skilled
labourers are able to get higher rates. It is easier to obtain coolies
in the Khasi than in the Jaintia Hills, where a large proportion of
the population is employed in cultivation. The Khasis are excellent
labourers, and cheerful and willing, but they at once resent bad
treatment, and are then intractable and hard to manage. Khasis are
averse to working in the plains in the hot-weather months.

Apiculture.

I am indebted to Mr. Rita for the following remarks on apiculture in
the Khasi and Jaintia Hills.

There are two kinds of indigenous bees in the Khasi Hills: one
domesticated, called _u ngap_ (_apis Indica_), and the other _u
lywai_, which is never domesticated, and is very pugnacious; its
hives are difficult of access, being always located in very high
cliffs. A few hives of a third class of bee are now-a-days to be
found in and around the station of Shillong, i.e. the Italian. This
bee was imported into the hills by Messrs. Dobbie and Rita, and the
species became propagated in the following manner. The bees had been
just established in a hive, where they had constructed a brood comb,
when the hive was robbed by some Khasis for the sake of the _larvae_
it contained, which they wished to consume as food; but the queen bee
escaped and established other colonies, one of which was afterwards
captured by Mr. Rita, the others establishing themselves at places in
the neighbourhood. The hive used by the Khasis is of a very primitive
description. It is usually a h