832 Memoir of Sylhet, Kachar, §• adjacent Districts, [No. 104. 



ever one officer who had charge of the series of ceremonies performed 

 in the spring of the year, but his duty was abolished by the jealousy 

 or bigotry of the late Rajas. Among their superstitions, it is the practice 

 to perform sacrifice before a bamboo planted in the ground, and into 

 which it is maintained the Power worshipped enters, on being duly 

 propitiated, and causes the boughs to bend in token of his approba- 

 tion. This custom is common also to the Tipperas. 



The indifference shown for animal life, and the absence of an esta- 

 blished and hereditary priesthood, mark sufficiently the disconnexion 

 with Hinduism, and the disregard for caste may be taken as an 

 additional proof of this ; for though the people are divided into forty 

 Sympongs, these are only so many social distinctions, or tribes, and 

 they are not prohibited from intermarrying or eating together, which 

 they accordingly frequently do. All these circumstances considered, 

 it will be found that this superstition more resembles the system of 

 Confucius than any thing Indian. 



The law of inheritance appears to be, that all property descends 

 in equal shares among the male children, and afterwards, in the natural 

 order of succession, to the brothers and brothers issue ; but as the 

 leading men formerly made no acquisitions in land (for the Kachari 

 cultivation is carried on by the inferior classes in a species of co- 

 parcenary) the subject has not given rise to much investigation. Mar- 

 riages seem to have been contracted spontaneously, without the direct 

 intervention of friends, but polygamy was allowed, and by the richer 

 classes indulged in to a great extent. The marriage of widows was 

 sanctioned, though not encouraged, and in order to escape the scandal of 

 such connexions, it seems to have been usual for widows, at least among 

 the higher ranks, to reside in the families of their deceased husband's 

 brother, by which it has after happened that more scandal was created 

 than it was intended to avoid. 



Among peculiar customs, for which no reason appears, it seems 

 to have been a rule that the Rajah should never reside in a building 

 of masonry, but in bungalows surrounded by a stockaded enclosure, 

 perhaps to reftiind him of his origin among the woods of upper Assam. 

 The worship of irascible female spirits, and the practice of the 

 Tantra magic ascribed by the Hindus to the people of Kamrup, are 

 imputations which derive some countenance from the existing worship of 



