274 KHASIA MOUNTAINS. Chap. XXIX. 



sleeves and bordered with long thread fringes, is their 

 principal garment; it is gathered into a girdle of silver 

 chains by people of rank. A cotton robe is sometimes 

 added, with a large cotton turban or small skull-cap. The 

 women wear a long cloth tied in a knot across the breast. 

 During festivals both men and women load themselves 

 with silk robes, fans, peacock's feathers, and gold and 

 silver ornaments of great value, procured from Assam, 

 many of which are said to be extremely curious, but I 

 regret to say that I never saw any of them. On these 

 occasions spirits are drunk, and dancing kept up all night: 

 the dance is described as a slow ungraceful motion, the 

 women being tightly swathed in cloths. 



All their materials are brought from Assam ; the only 

 articles in constant use, of their own manufacture, being a 

 rude sword or knife with a wooden handle and a long, 

 narrow, straight blade of iron, and the baskets with head- 

 straps, like those used by the Lepchas, but much neater ; 

 also a netted bag of pine-apple fibre (said to come from 

 Silhet) which holds a clasp-knife, comb, flint, steel, and 

 betel-nut box. They are much addicted to chewing pawn 

 (betel-nut, pepper leaves, and lime) all day long, and their 

 red saliva looks like blood on the paths. Besides the 

 sword I have described, they carry bows and arrows, and 

 rarely a lance, and a bamboo wicker-work shield. 



We found the Khasias to be sulky intractable fellows, 

 contrasting unpleasantly with the Lepchas; Avanting in quick- 

 ness, frankness, and desire to please, and obtrusively 

 independent in manner ; nevertheless we had a head man 

 who was very much the reverse of this, and whom we had 

 never any cause to blame. Their language is, I believe, 

 Indo-Chinese and monosyllabic : it is disagreeably nasal 

 and guttural, and there are several dialects and accents in 



