KHASSYA HILLS with the Jaintia Hills form a British district in Assam, between lat. 25° 1' and 26° 14' N., and between long. 90° 47' and 92° 52' E., of an area of 6157 square miles, and with a population, according to the census of 1881, of 169,113 souls. These hills form the central section of the watershed between the valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Surma. The Khassya !tills are occupied by a collection of States, each governed by an elective ruler on democratic principles. The Khassya States are 25 in num ber, of which five, viz. Cherrapunji, Khyrim, Nustung, Sungree, and Nuspoong are commonly called the semi-independent States. The chiefs exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction over their own people in all matters pertaining exclusively to them. The minor States, known as the depend ent States, are 20 in number, the chief of which are Nungklow. Mowseuram. Mowyang.
Moleem. Mowdun Punji. Nobo Sopho.
Murriow. Mah ram. I Jeerung.
ltamrye. Medial Chummet. Syung.
Rhawul. Moflong Punji.
Cheyla. Seenai Punji. 1 Mowlong Punji.
Dowarrah Lengkhan Punji. Lykeom Punji. Notoormen.
Moleein was conquered in 1829, and the raja of Khyrim ceded, to the British, the territory to the S.E. of the Oomean or Booga Pane river. In 1861, the raja was deposed, and Malay Singh, a new chief, installed. No engagements have ever been made with Nobo Sopho, Syung, Moflong Punji, and Lyksom Punji, but agreements were entered into with Mowyang in 1829, Dowarrah Notoormen in 1837, Soopar Pimp in 1829, and in 1860 with Blutwul. Thu whole tract of the bill country occupied by these confederates embraces an area of about 3800 square miles be tween Khassya, Sylhet, Assam, and the country of the Garo. Some of tho hills attain a height of 6000 feet, but the country includes belts of arable soil about 2000 feet. above the plains, on which grow, in great luxuriance, oranges, limes, pine-apples, the jack-fruit, and mangoes, betel. nut, and plantains, with the raspberry and strawberry.
The census of the Kliagsya and Jaintia Hills of 1872 showed 73,245 females to 68,593 males, and that of 1881 gives 88,710 of the former to 80,403 of the latter : that is, the district contains 110.3 women to every 100 men. In the Garo and Northern Cachar Hills the excess of females is trifling. In the Neilgherry Hills the excess of males is so great that polyandry is practised, and female Todas have a plurality of husbands.
Khasiya women are at the head of the family, hold property in their own right, and property descends in the female line. The sister's son in
herits property and rank.
Marriages are made without ceremony. If the proposal of a youth is accepted by the young lady and hor parents,heenters the household of the latter, or sometimes only visits his wife there occasion ally ; the union thus loosely made is easily broken. Separations are frequent ; and when they mutually agree to part, they publicly intimate their wish by throwing away a few shells taken from each other ; the children remain with the mother.
The Khasiya race deem a twin-birth unlucky, and, when twins were born, used to kill one of the infants. They deemed the twin-birth degrading, as assimilating them with the lower animals. The Aino of Japan, also, if a twin-birth occur, always destroyed one of the infants ; and this idea likewise prevails amongst the Bali population, and the Australian indigenes.
The Khasiya tribe habitually erect dolmens, menhirs, cists, and cromlechs, almost as gigantic in their proportions, and very similar in appearance and construction, to the so-called Druidical re mains of Western Europe.
The undulatory eminences of the country, sonic 4000 to 600Q feet above the level of the sea, are dotted with groups of huge unpolished squared pillars and tabular slabs, supported on three or four rude piers. In one spot, .buried in a grove, were found a nearly complete circle of menhir, the tallest of which was 30 feet out of the ground, 6 feet broad, and 2 feet 8 inches thick ; and in front of each was a dolmen or cromlech of pro portionately gigantic pieces of rock ; while the largest slab measured was 32 feet high, 15 feet broad, and 2 feet thick. The method of removing the blocks is by cutting grooves, akin.. which fires are lighted, and into which, when cold water is run, which causes the rock to fissure along the groove ; the lever and rope are the only mechanical aids used in transporting and erecting the blocks. Tho objects of their erection are various.—sepulture, marking spots where public events had occurred, etc. The ]bassi word for a stone, man,' occurs as commonly in the names of their villages and places as that of man, mace, and men does in those of Brittany, Wales, Corn wall, etc. Thus Mansmai signifies in Khassya the stone of oath ; Mamloo, the stone of salt ; Man flong, the grassy stone, etc.; just as in Wales Penmaen mawr signifies the bill of the big stone,, and in Brittany, a menhir is a standing and a dohnen a table stone, etc.