the dry season : a practice said to prevail among some
tribes in the Malay peninsula. Spirits are drunk on
these occasions; but the hill Khasias are 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.
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.
F ining 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 mother, who throws ashes in bis
face. The sun is female ; and the Pleiades are called
“ the Hen-man ” (as in Italy “ the chickens”): they
have names for the twelve months; they do not divide
their time by weeks, but hold a market every fourth
day. These people are industrious, and good cultivators
of rice, millet, and legumes of many kinds.
Potatos 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 woodf
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
rnflin 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 inundates 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; and there is not a tree, and
scarcely a shrub to be seen, except occasional clumps
of screw-pine. The low white bungalows are few in
number, and very scattered, some of them being a mile
asunder, enclosed with stone walls and shrubs; and a
small white church, disused on account of the damp,
stands lonely in the centre of all.
The views from the margins of this plateau are
magnificent : 4000 feet below are bay-like valleys,
carpeted as with green velvet, from which rise tall
palms, tree-ferns with spreading crowns, and rattans
shooting their pointed heads, surrounded with feathery
foliage, as with ostrich plumes, far above the great
trees. Beyond are the Jheels, looking like a broad
shallow sea with the tide half out, bounded in the blue
distance by the low hills of Tippera. To the right and
left are the scarped red rocks and roaring waterfalls,
shooting far over the cliffs, and then arching their
necks as they expand in feathery foam, over which