1892.] S. E. Peal — Communal Barracks of Primitive Races. 253 



broken up, and those who wish to leave go out. When they form 

 one they elect head nien to it. The first is called Cleng Sarpo and 

 highest, the second is Cleng doon, and the third is called Sodar keta, the 

 fourth Sodar loo. 



No married man or one who is a widower ever joins a " Tareng," 

 and there are none for girls. No girls, yonng women or married women 

 may go near them, and they are used as council and guard-houses as 

 well as being the regular sleeping barracks of the unmarried young men. 

 Anything happening is first reported to the Cleng sarpo, and 

 thence to the villagers and head men. Any one visiting the village 

 sleeps in the " Tareng," and any young man from the " Tareng" can 

 go to any house he likes and sleep with an unmarried girl ; her parents 

 can make no objection. When once a " Tareng " is formed no one can 

 leave it until it breaks up, or he is fined. 



Among the Lushais a traveller informs us that " the custom is in all 

 these villages, that the young men on arrival at a certain age, are expelled 

 from their father's house at night, and sleep all together in the Zalbuk, 

 or bachelors' house. The Zalbuk is one large room, inside a verandah. 

 Colonel T. H. Lewin frequently and very clearly refers to this 

 custom in his " Wild races of S. E. India " and to the liberty allowed 

 between the sexes before marriage, (see pages 119, 121, 182, 193, 201, 

 203, 215 and 254), making it particularly clear that among the " Hill 

 tracts " therein referred to, the young unmarried men and lads are 

 graded and governed by special communal laws, and that these domi- 

 nate the rights of the parent, as will be gathered from the remark : — ■ 

 " his mother abused them much, but the father and mother could not 

 hurt them as they were acting by the Goung's orders." 



We constantly indeed find proofs that the right of the parents 

 over their children is more or less subordinate to that of the commu- 

 nal barrack, that " the family " in fact as the social unit, is not yet 

 emancipated, but holds a subordinate position in the body politic. 



To a moral certainty, the above few instances do not represent 

 a tenth part of the information which a systematic survey would reveal, 

 in regard to this momentous subject, among the Indo- Mongolian races, 

 but enough has probably been said to shew that these communal bar- 

 racks are a social feature of importance, deserving more careful study. 



Turning now to Bengal and Central India, with its mixed and 

 aboriginal races, we find these barracks in some form or other araono- 

 the Gonds, Konds, Sonthals, Kols and others. According to the Revd. 

 S. Hyslop, the Konds and Gonds have " in their villages bothies for 

 bachelors." Among the Gaiti Gonds and Koitars, " each village has a 

 house, or gotalghar (empty bed house) for single unmarried men to 

 sleep in, and also similar ones for unmarried girls and women." 

 33 



