keep the population stationary. The question might with advantage be
examined at the census of 1911.

The next characteristic of the Khasis which marks them out for special
notice is their method of divination for ascertaining the causes of
misfortune and the remedies to be applied. All forms of animistic
religion make it their chief business to avert the wrath of the
gods, to which calamities of all kinds--sickness, storm, murrain,
loss of harvest--are ascribed, by some kind of propitiation; and in
this the Khasis are not singular. But it is somewhat surprising to
find among them the identical method of _extispicium_ which was in use
among the Romans, as well as an analogous development in the shape of
egg-breaking, fully described by Major Gurdon (p. 221), which seems
to have been known to diviners in ancient Hellas. [10] This method has
(with much else in Khasi practice) been adopted by the former subjects
of the Khasis, the Mikirs; but it does not appear to be prevalent
among any other of the animistic tribes within the boundaries of India.

The third remarkable feature of Khasi usage is the custom, which
prevails to this day, of setting up great memorials of rough stone,
of the same style and character as the _menhirs_ and _cromlechs_ which
are found in Western Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia. It
is very surprising to a visitor, unprepared for the sight by previous
information, to find himself on arrival at the plateau in the midst of
great groups of standing and table stones exactly like those he may
have seen in Brittany, the Channel Islands, the south of England,
or the Western Isles. Unfortunately the great earthquake of June
1897 overthrew many of the finest of these megalithic monuments;
but several still remain, and of these Major Gurdon has given an
excellent description (pp. 144 sqq.), with an explanation of the