18 C. Brownlow — A Mllcir Bachelors' Hall. [Jais". 



admirably selected, and might, with a little repair, and a few additions, be 

 made almost impregnable. 



The interior of the entrenchment is at present occupied by a Mikir 

 villao-e consisting of 8 or 10 houses which are built on piles at a good height 

 above the ground, each house having a bit of open platform in front on 

 which the people sit in the evenings and sleep at nights. There is no 

 palaver house as in Kachhari villages. 



The Bachelors' Hall which it is the immediate object of this paper to 

 describe, is situate on one side of the village, a little apart ; it is well built 

 and stands on piles like the the rest, and is matted with the wild bamboo 

 turza, or matting made of the bamboo beaten at the joints until well split 

 and then opened out, this is the matting used in all habitations of hill-men 

 that are anywhere near the jungle and that are built on piles. 



There is a front stage to the Hall which is reached by a wooden ladder 

 consisting of a log with recesses cut for the foot. 



On both sides of the stage there are live simul trees {JBomhax liepta- 

 pliylluni) which have been put in live and have rooted, and on one of them 

 was affixed a plant of that elegant parasite, the Dendrobium hamhusifolium. 

 At the entrance there are also several entire bamboos arranged, so as to allow 

 any or all to be lifted up for anybody to pass and then let down again. At 

 the opposite side of the house inside was the urinary, consisting of a small 

 i-ecess projecting a little way out from the building. 



Of the figures in the plate. No. 1 is a stick peculiarly carved, which is 

 charred and used for cleaning the teeth. (See Plate II). 



No. 2 is a drum used for summoning the lads and unmarried men to 



sleep. 



No. 3 is a bundle of sticks used in jhoom measurement. 



No. 5 is a board fixed over the door which has carved on it certain 

 emblematical figures, which were explained to me as — woman's breasts, Che- 

 liang (an alligator?), Ingnar (elephant), Cliildow (moon). As these symbols 

 may very possibly throw light on the affinities and origin of the tribe I 

 think a notice of them may be of interest to your Society. 



The Mikir numerals are as follows — 

 isi heni kathom phelee phongo tharok throksi nerkep serkep 

 12345 6 7 89 



kep krav so kray hni 

 10 11 12 



Mr. Phear observed that Mr. Wallace in his Malay Archipelago men- 

 tioned the institution of Bachelors' Halls among the Dyaks of Borneo ; and 

 he said that the same thing still existed in one or two Oraon villages in the 

 neighbourhood of Eanchi. 



