shouting and quarrelling, surrounded by the mixture of yellow yolks
and their red pawn saliva.

The funeral ceremonies are the only ones of any importance, and are
often conducted with barbaric pomp and expense; and rude stones of
gigantic proportions are erected as monuments, singly or in rows,
circles, or supporting one another, like those of Stonehenge, which
they rival in dimensions and appearance. The body is burned, though
seldom during the rains, from the difficulty of obtaining a fire; it
is therefore preserved in honey (which is abundant and good) till the
dry season: a practice I have read of as prevailing among some tribes
in the Malay peninsula. Spirits are drunk on these occasions; but the
hill Khasia is not addicted to drunkenness, though some of the
natives of the low valleys are very much so. These ascend the rocky
faces of the mountains by ladders, to the Churra markets, and return
loaded at night, apparently all but too drunk to stand; yet they
never miss their footing in places which are most dangerous to
persons unaccustomed to such situations.

Illustration--THE TABLE-LAND AND STATION OF CHURRA, WITH THE JHEELS,
COURSE OF THE SOORMAH RIVER, AND TIPPERAH HILLS IN THE EXTREME
DISTANCE, LOOKING SOUTH.

The Khasias are superstitious, but have no religion; like the
Lepchas, they believe in a supreme being, and in deities of the
grove, cave, and stream. Altercations are often decided by holding
the disputants' heads under water, when the longest winded carries
his point. Fining is a common punishment, and death for grave
offences. The changes of the moon are accounted for by the theory
that this orb, who is a man, monthly falls in love with his wife's