1855.] Notes on Northern Cachar. 641 



tradition declaring that the Thadon sprung from a father, and the 

 Shingshon from his eldest son. Some intermarriages therefore, 

 take place between these, and their royal families also occasionally 

 give away daughters in marriage to each other. But there is greater 

 objection and a good deal of ridicule attached to the marriage of a 

 Thadon or Shingshon with a Changsen or Lhungiim, although it is 

 sometimes done, neither is it common for a Changsen to marry a 

 Lhungiim, and the same exclusive system prevails through the other 

 petty clans of the Kookies, whose names even are too numerous to 

 be mentioned. 



It is at present perfectly impossible to estimate the entire Kookie 

 population on this frontier, many tribes existing to the south and 

 east with whom we have had as yet no connexion, and there being 

 numbers in Manipore of whom little or nothing is known. In 

 Cachar Proper about 1500 houses of all clans, but chiefly Lhungiims, 

 pay Government rent, which would give a population of about 7500 

 for that part of the country. In N. Cachar, exclusive of old Koo- 

 kies, there are 1200 rent-paying houses, giving a population of about 

 6000, supposing five to inhabit each house : of these the Changsen 

 clan are most numerous, the Thadon and Shingshon coming after, 

 there being no Lhungiims in the country. In Manipore no correct 

 computation can be made, but there may be as many in that country 

 as in the whole of Cachar put together. But the greater part of the 

 population, among whom are the Looshen, Telmok, Hankeep, Chom- 

 foot, Solbee, Molbeem, and Thanguey Kookies, lie beyond our ken 

 altogether in the vast unexplored territories to the south of Cachar 

 and Manipore. 



Oaths taken among the Kookies are held most sacred, and are 

 never resorted to except on the most serious occasions, such as 

 when a long feud is being healed up between two clans, or a treaty 

 of alliance entered into. Both parties swear to maintain peace 

 or good fellowship. A dhao is placed on the ground, and on it 

 are arranged rice, salt, earth, fire and a tiger's tooth. The party 

 swearing takes the dhao and puts the blade between his teeth, and 

 biting it says : " May I be cut with the dhao, in war and in the field ; 

 may rice and salt fail me, my crops wither, and I die of hunger ; 



4 p 2 



