MEITHEI, the principal tribe inhabiting the valley of Mani pur in Assam ; probably of mixed origin and related to the Kuki and Naga tribes, the Ao in particular, also probably to the Syn tengs and Kacharis. They have a culture probably Shan in origin, though never Buddhist, and Hinduized in the first half of the 18th century A.D. They are great rice-growers, fishermen and horse breeders ; polo and hockey are national games and boat-racing an annual pastime. The head of the people is a Maharaja, under whom is a judicial body known as the Chirap court ; the State is divided into administrative areas called lam, each with central and village officials. The ancient civil and military organization was by functional divisions like that of the Ahoms. There are seven patrilineal exogamous clans, and marriage into the mother's clan is forbidden for one generation. Head-hunting was practised until Hinduism became general, before which the Meithei were meat-eaters and buried their dead. They now burn them and have an institution called singlup—a sort of burial club for ensuring the provision of wood for the cremation of contributors. In spite of
the Hindu religion animistic beliefs and practices are strong. Maiba and rnaibi—Medicine-men and -women—are numerous and popular ; forms of ancestor-worship, traces of snake-worship, witchcraft, tabu, vampires, whose astral bodies devour men's livers, all flourish, and animistic deities are worshipped no less than orthodox Hindu gods. Indeed, a special custodian of ancient god lings holds one of the most prominent religious posts.
The Maharaja is the divine head of the State, both religious and secular, and is the chief rain-maker. Like the Ahom princes he has a human "scapegoat" provided on certain occasions to take on him all his (the Maharaja's) guilt.
The language spoken is Tibeto-Burman and allied to the Kuki tongue. There is an archaic form of the language, now incompre hensible, and though the present script is derived from the Ben gali, there is a tradition that the Chinese first taught them writing.
See T. C. Hodson, The Meithei (1908). (J. H. H.) MEKNES: see MEQUINEZ.