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 preside over large areas of country with very little
interference. All the British portion of the hills is what is called a
"Scheduled District" under Acts XIV and XV of 1874, and legislation
which may be inappropriate to the conditions of the people can be,
and is, excluded from operation within it. In these circumstances the
administration is carried on in a manner well calculated to win the
confidence and attachment of the people, who have to hear few of the
burdens which press upon the population elsewhere, and, with the peace
and protection guaranteed by British rule, are able to develop their
institutions upon indigenous lines. It is now more than forty years
since any military operations have been necessary within the hills,
and the advance of the district in prosperity and civilization during
the last half-century has been very striking.

The first contact between the British and the inhabitants of the
Khasi Hills followed upon the acquisition by the East India Company,
in consequence of the grant of the _Diwani_ of Bengal in 1765, of the
district of Sylhet. The Khasis were our neighbours on the north of
that district, and to the north-east was the State of Jaintia, [1]
ruled over by a chief of Khasi lineage, whose capital, Jaintiapur, was