mother, who throws ashes in his face. The sun is female; and Mr.
Yule* [I am indebted to Mr. Inglis for most of this information
relating to the Khasias, which I have since found, with much more
that is curious and interesting, in a paper by Lieut. Yule in Bengal
Asiat. Soc. Journal.] (who is my authority) says that the Pleiades
are called "the Hen-man" (as in Italy "the chickens"); also that they
have names for the twelve months; they do not divide their time by
weeks, but hold a market every four days. These people are
industrious, and good cultivators of rice, millet, and legumes of
many kinds. Potatoes were introduced amongst them about twenty years
ago by Mr. Inglis, and they have increased so rapidly that the
Calcutta market is now supplied by their produce. They keep bees in
rude hives of logs of wood.

The flat table-land on which Churra Poonji is placed, is three miles
long and two broad, dipping abruptly in front and on both sides, and
rising behind towards the main range, of which it is a spur.
The surface of this area is everywhere intersected by shallow, rocky
watercourses, which are the natural drains for the deluge that
annually visits it. The western part is undulated and hilly, the
southern rises in rocky ridges of limestone and coal, and the eastern
is very flat and stony, broken only by low isolated conical mounds.

The scenery varies extremely at different parts of the surface.
Towards the flat portion, where the English reside, the aspect is as
bleak and inhospitable as can be imagined: a thin stratum of marshy
or sandy soil covers a tabular mass of cold red sandstone; and there
is not a tree, and scarcely a shrub to be seen, except occasional
clumps of Pandanus. The low white bungalows are few in number, and
very scattered, some of them being a mile asunder, enclosed with