626 Notes on Northern Cachar. [No. 7. 



he is further entitled to one quarter of every animal killed in the 

 chase, and, in addition, to one of the tusks of each elephant so 

 slain. In labour his entire population are bound to devote four days 

 in each year, in a body, for the purpose of cultivating his private 

 fields. On the first day they cut down the jungle, on the second 

 the fuel being dry, they fire it, and prepare the ground, on the third 

 they sow and harrow, and on the fourth cut and bring in the harvest. 

 Besides the labour of these four days in which the entire effective 

 population, men, women and children work for him, small parties 

 are told off during the whole season to assist his own domestic 

 slaves in tending the crop, repairing his house (which edifice is 

 always built afresh by the subjects when a new site is repaired to) 

 and in supplying wood and water for the family. On the occasion 

 of the days of general labour, a great feast is given by the Kajah to 

 all his people, so also, on the occasion of an elephant being killed, 

 to the successful hunters, but this is the only remuneration ever 

 received by them, and calls can be made on them for further supplies 

 and labour, whenever it may be required. It says a great 

 deal for the loyalty of the Kookies, that they still submit to these 

 exactions without grumbling, paying at the same time the full 

 amount of their house-tax to our Government. 



The Rajah is the sole and supreme authority in the village or 

 villages under him, no one else being competent to give orders or 

 inflict punishments except through him. His power is of course 

 anomalous, and illegal with respect to our laws and institutions, he 

 being a mere subject of the Eritish Government alike with the 

 meanest of his village, and in no way placed in authority, except as 

 mouzadar, or collector ; but still that power exists in nearly full 

 force, and no appeal is made against it by those subject to it. Re- 

 venue is exacted, and offences punished by fine and bondage, no 

 murmuring voice, not even that of the culprit, being raised against 

 the decree. I see no method of preventing this self-devotion to 

 loyalty on the part of the Kookies. Violent measures would estrange 

 them from us, and therefore, it is better to let the system die a 

 natural death, which it most assuredly will in time, as the Kookies 

 proceed in the acquisition of worldly knowledge. 



To assist him in carrying on the affairs of government, the Eajah 



