Part 2

The traditions of the race point to the Eastern portion of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, bordering on the Kopili (or Kupli) river (where many still remain), as their original abode. They speak of this as Nihàng, in contradistinction to Nilip, the Duar Baguri or Nowgong region which they now inhabit. Being harassed by warfare between Khasi (or Synteng) chiefs, they resolved to move into Ahom territory, and sent emissaries to claim protection from the Ahom governor of Raha (Nowgong District). These unfortunate persons, being unable to make themselves understood, were straightway buried alive in the embankment of a tank which the governor was excavating. The hostilities which ensued were concluded by an embassage to the king himself in Sibsagar, and the Mikirs have ever since been living peacefully in the territory assigned to them. They have dim traditions of a king of their own in the good old days, whom they call Sòt Recho, and are said by Mr. Stack to expect his return to earth. His seat is said to have been in Ròng-khàng (or Ròng-hàng), perhaps connected with Ni-hàng (Ròng, village). They had fights with the Dimasa or Hill Kacharis, and were led by Thòng Nòkbe and other captains, who established a fort at Diyaung-mukh (the junction of the Diyaung and Kopili rivers), the ruins of which are still to be seen. Along the northern skirts of the Mikir Hills there are remains of old brick buildings and sculptures, which are now ascribed to the Gods. Old men tell historical legends to the young ones, and there are also legendary songs, sung at festivals; but there is no class specially set apart for the preservation of such traditions, and the memory of the race is short. They are a mild and unwarlike people, and are said to have given up the use of arms when they placed themselves under the protection of the Ahom kings.

They claim kinship with no other tribe in Assam, and are, in fact, difficult to group with other branches of the great Tibeto-Burman stock to which they undoubtedly belong. The conclusions as to their affinities which it seems legitimate to draw from their institutions, culture, and language, will be found stated in Section VII. of this Monograph.

In dress the Mikir man imitates the Khasi, to whom he seems to have lived in subjection in former times. On his head he now wears a turban (pohu, poho), but formerly the Khasi cap (phu-tup), of black or red cloth, was more usually worn. On his loins he wears a dhoti (rikòng) of cotton cloth, and sometimes, if wealthy, of silk. His coat is a sleeveless striped jacket (choi), with a long fringe covering the buttocks and coming round in front (choi-apre). In cold weather he wears a thick wrapper (called in Assamese bor kapor) of eri silk (pe-inki). The legs are uncovered, and shoes are not worn.

The women wear a petticoat (pini), secured round the waist by an ornamental girdle (vànkòk). The petticoat is of white and red striped eri cloth. The upper part of the body is covered with the ji-so, a wrapper passing under the arms and drawn tight over the breasts. The head is uncovered, and the hair is drawn back and tied in a knot behind. In the funeral dances, however, the head is covered with a black scarf (ji-so ke-ik).

The men do not tattoo any part of the body. The women, on attaining puberty, usually tattoo a perpendicular line with indigo down the middle of the forehead, the nose, upper lip, and chin; no other part of the body is tattooed.

A characteristic ornament is a large silver tube inserted into the lobe of the ear, which is much distended thereby; this is called kadèngchinro, and weighs three or four rupees. The ordinary hanging earring (suspended from the outer part of the ear) of gold or silver is called no-rik. Necklaces (lèk) are worn, of gold or silver and coral beads, as by the Khasis. Rings (arnàn) and bracelets (roi), of gold and silver, are worn. The feathers of the bhim-raj are worn in the turban on festal occasions, as among the Khasis.

The national weapons are the long knife (nòk, nòk-jir), by the English commonly called by the Hindi name dao, the spear (chir), and the bow (thai, bòp-thaili) made of bamboo, with a string of tough bamboo fibre. In these there is nothing peculiar.

II.

DOMESTIC LIFE.

Occupations--Houses--Furniture--Implements and utensils--Manufactures--Agriculture--Riso mar, or lads' clubs--Crops--Hunting--Fishing--Food and Drink.

The Mikir people have always been agriculturists. Their villages, in the hills which are their proper habitat, are set up in clearings in the forest, and are shifted from place to place when the soil has been exhausted by cropping. Their houses are large and substantial, and are strongly put together. The Mikirs are not now (if they ever were [7]), as Colonel Dalton relates in his Ethnology of Bengal, in the habit of lodging several families, or even the whole village, in one house. The inhabitants of a house are all of one family, but may often be numerous, as married sons frequently live with their parents.

The Mikir house is built on posts, and the floor is raised several feet above the ground. The material of the super-structure is bamboo, slit and flattened out, and the whole is thatched with san-grass. A moderate elevation, with a flat top, is preferred for building; a slope will be taken if no better site can be found.

The house is divided lengthwise by a partition called arpòng, or nòksèk-arpòng, into kàm, the guests' or servants' chamber, and kut, the living-room of the family. Kàm is on the right side as you enter, and the only door into the house leads into it. In kàm a platform or chang, called tibung, raised above the floor the diameter of a bamboo, runs along the outside wall; this may be divided off laterally into rooms for sleeping. In kut, separated off by a partition on the side of the outer wall, is a long, narrow chamber, one bamboo's diameter lower than the floor, called vo-roi, in which the fowls and goats are kept at night; it has a separate door, called vo-roi-amehàn. In kut, towards the back, is the fireplace (mehip). The space before it is dàm-thàk, where the family sleep, and the bamboo paddy-receptacle stands. Behind the fireplace is dàm-buk, a vacant space, where the grown-up daughter or old woman sleeps. Between the fire and the vo-roi is the rice-pot (sàng-ràngtik), holding the stock of husked rice. Between the fire and the partition (arpòng) is the kut-athèngthòr, a space for miscellaneous articles. Above the vo-roi a shelf is raised under the roof, called vo-harlip, for pots, etc. Opposite the fireplace is a door leading into kàm.

In kàm, if the house is large, there are two fireplaces. Before the fire the space is called kàm-athèngthòt, or nòksèk. In the corner of the front wall and the partition (arpòng) are put the water-chungas (làng-bòng); it is called làng-tenun. The front door is called hòngthu, the back door pàn, or pàn-hòngthu.

The front veranda is called hòng-kup. The tibung runs out into it, and the part beyond the front wall of the house is called thèng-roi-rai, "the place for bringing (or storing) firewood" (thèng). Beyond the hòng-kup the platform extends unroofed (hòng-plàng). If the house be a large one, a hòng-pharla, roofed over, for strangers to lodge in, is made on the right side of the hòng-plàng, but disconnected with the thèng-roi-rai; between it and the latter is the ladder to gain access to the platform (dòndòn), usually a tree-trunk with notches cut in it for the feet. The hòng-pharla may extend also across the front of the house; it is roofed over, but open towards the house. Similarly, at the back of the house is the pàng-hòngkup, or back veranda, and the unroofed pàng beyond. No ladder gives access to this.

Under the house are the pigsties, phàk-roi, and in front is a yard or compound (tikup), usually fenced round.

The furniture of the house is of the simplest description. The floor, or a raised platform of bamboo, serves as a bed. A block of wood (inghoi; Ass. pira) is used as a stool to sit on. Baskets of bamboo and cane are employed as cupboards in which to store the household goods, the paddy, and the clothes. These baskets are of various shapes and sizes, and bear many different names. Joints of bamboo (Ass. chunga; Mikir, làng-bòng) are used for holding water, and also as boxes to contain valuables of all kinds.

The Mikirs have few manufactures. Weaving is done by the women of the family on rude wooden looms (pè-theràng), the cotton raised in their fields being previously spun on a wheel (mi-thòngràng). They also raise eri silk (inki), the cocoon of the Attacus ricini, fed on the castor-oil plant, and weave it into coarse fabrics, chiefly the bor-kapor, or blanket, used in the cold weather. They dye their thread with indigo (sibu), a small patch of which is grown near every house. The indigo is not derived from Indigofera, but from a species of Strobilanthes, generally identified as S. flaccidifolius. Mr. Stack notes that there are two kinds, bu-thi and bu-jir; the latter, he says, is trained up poles, and has a longer leaf. The leaves of the plant are bruised in a wooden mortar and mixed with water, and the blue colour develops, as in ordinary indigo, in a few days' time by chemical change. Besides indigo, they use a red dye, the source of which is probably the same as the Khasi red dye (see Khasi Monograph, p. 60).

Blacksmiths (hemai) have existed among them from remote times, and they can fashion their own daos and various kinds of knives. They also make needles (for which old umbrella-ribs are in much request), and hooks for fishing.

They also make their own gold and silver ornaments (necklaces, bracelets, rings, ear-ornaments).

Pottery is made without the wheel, as among the Khasis (Monograph, p. 61). It is thick and durable, and well burnt. There are few potters among them, and the accomplishment is not common.

In all these branches of manufacture the tendency, with the increase of intercourse and the cessation of isolation, is to give up domestic workmanship and rely more upon outside markets.

The main crops are summer rice (maikum), sown with the first rains and reaped in November-December, and cotton (phelo), also grown in the rains and gathered in the cold weather. The system of jhuming, by which land is prepared for cultivation by cutting down and burning the jungle, is in no respect different from the practice of all hill-tribes in the province. They do not plant out their rice, nor use the plough in cultivating it. There is no irrigation.

Besides these main crops, castor-oil is grown for feeding the eri silkworm; maize (thèngthe), turmeric (tharmit), yams (hèn, Colocasia), red pepper (birik), aubergines (Hindi, baingan; Mikir, hepi), and ginger (hànso) are also cultivated in small patches. Another crop is lac, grown on branches of the arhar plant (see Khasi Monograph, p. 47).

When Mr. Stack wrote, the most important institution from the point of view of agriculture was the association or club of the dekas (Ass.), or young men (from twelve to sixteen, eighteen, or twenty years of age) of the village (Mikir, ri-so-mar); but it is reported that this useful form of co-operation is now falling into desuetude. In former days the village youths (as in Naga-land) used to live together in a house by themselves, called in Mikir maro or teràng (in Assamese, deka-chang). [8] Now there is no maro, and the risomar live in the gaonbura's house, in the hòng-pharla, the place in which strangers are lodged. They send a boy to bring their food from their homes, and all eat together. Each man's share is brought in a leaf-bundle (àn-bòr) to keep it warm. The gaonbura calls the people together, and proposes that, having so many lads in the village, they should start a lads' club. If agreed to, the union of the risomar is formed, and the lads take up their quarters in his house. The club is organized under regular officers appointed by themselves. The gaonbura has general authority over them, but their own chief is the klèng sarpo. Next comes the klèng-dun, then the sodar-kethe, then the sodar-so or phàndiri, then the sàngho-kerai ("he who fetches the company"), then the barlòn ("carrier of the measuring-rod"). Other officers are the chèng-brup-pi and chèng-brup-so (drummers, chief and lieutenant), the phàn-kri (the lad who waits on the klèng sarpo), the motàn ar-e and motàn arvi ("the right and left outside strips of the field"), the làngbòng-po ("carrier of the water-chunga"), arphèk-po ("carrier of the broom"), and the chinhàk-po ("carrier of the basket of tools"). The risomar all work in the fields together, each having his own strip (a-mo) to till. The village fields are allotted each to one house, and the grown men confine their work to their own fields; but the risomar go the round of all the fields in the village.

Work is enforced by penalties. They used to roast those who shirked their share; now they beat them for failure to work. If the klèng sarpo finds a lad refractory, he reports him to the gaonbura.

Villages like having deka clubs. They help greatly in cultivation, practice dancing and singing, and keep alive the village usages and tribal customs. They are in great request at funerals, which are the celebrations in which most spirit is shown.

Hunting, with spears and dogs, is practised. The objects of the chase are deer and wild pig; also the iguana (Ass. gui) and tortoise. The dog barks and follows up the track by scent. They also set traps (arhàng) for tigers, with a spear placed so as to be discharged from a spring formed by a bent sapling; twice round the tiger's pug gives the height of his chest, at which the spear is pointed; a rope of creeper stretched across the path releases the spring when the tiger passes that way and comes against it.

Fishing is done with rod and line, but chiefly by means of traps and baskets, as in Assam generally. The trap (ru) is a basket of bamboo, constructed so that the fish can get in but cannot get out, and is fixed in an opening in a fence (a-ru-pat) placed in a stone dam built across a stream.

The staple food is rice, which is husked in the usual way, by being pounded with a long pestle in a wooden mortar, and cooked by the women of the family. The flesh of cows is not eaten; there is said to be a dislike even to keep them, but this prejudice is now dying out. Milk is not drunk. Fowls, goats, and pigs are kept for food, but eaten chiefly at sacrifices; eggs are eaten. A delicacy is the chrysalis of the eri silkworm (Attacus ricini); it is eaten roasted and curried. Children (but not grown folk) cook and eat crabs and rats. In cooking meat, spits (òk-akròn) are used; the meat is either cut up and skewered, or a large lump is placed whole on the embers; it is thoroughly cooked. Fish is cut into slices and put in the sun to dry, or smoked. Meat also is cut into strips and dried on frames in the sun.

The vegetables are those commonly used by the Assamese. Sugar-cane (nòk) is not much grown. A favourite seasoning is mint (lopòng-brik).

Men and women eat together, within the house. The right hand is used in eating. Leaf-plates are most used, but platters of pot-metal are also found. No knife is used in eating: the meat is cut up beforehand.

The first meal is cooked and eaten at 7 or 8 a.m., and consists of rice. The evening meal is cooked after the day's field-work is over, unless there be a cook in the house. At each meal a pinch of the food is put aside for the God (arnàm).

The national drink is rice-beer (hòr, hòrpo), which is made by each household for itself. The rice is cooked, and well broken up on a mat. It is then mixed with a ferment called thàp (Bengali, bakhar), made of powdered rice with certain kinds of leaves pounded into it, and the whole dried for use as required. After this has been thoroughly mixed with the boiled rice, the latter is heaped up and covered with plantain leaves, and put aside in the house. In three or four days, in the hot weather, fermentation sets in; in the cold weather a longer time is required. It is then put into an earthern jar or kalsi (Beng.) and water added, after which it is emptied into a conical basket, whence it is allowed to strain through a bamboo joint into a pot below. To make hòr (Ass. modh), rice is taken from the basket and warmed with water, which is strained off, and is the modh or hòrpo; the rice is thrown to the pigs. The better and stronger beer is that which was drained off the original conical basket, and is called hòr-alàng.

Aràk (Hind.) is the spirit distilled from the fermented rice mixed with water. The still is a rude one of earthern pots connected by a bamboo. A stronger stuff is made by distilling hòr-alàng.

Hòr will keep good for two months if left untouched. It is a common family drink. Gourds are used for keeping it in and carrying it about for use.

Drunkenness is not common in the villages, and the ceremonies and festivities at which beer is drunk are not noisy. The me or general council, however, when large quantities are consumed, is sometimes noisy.

Opium is used to a large extent by the Mikirs as by other Assamese (Mr. Allen states that nearly all male adults indulge in it). Tobacco is smoked, and also chewed with betel. The bowl of the tobacco-pipe is made of burnt clay or of bamboo root. Betel-nut (kove; Khasi, kwai) is largely consumed in the usual way, with lime and pan-leaf (bithi); and (as among the Khasis) time and distance are computed by the interval required to chew a nut. (The phrase is ingtàt e-òm-ta er, "the time it takes to chew the nut and pan-leaf red": ingtàt, roll for chewing; e-, one; òm, chew; er, red.)

III.

LAWS AND CUSTOMS.

Internal structure--Sections or divisions--Exogamous groups--Marriage laws--Common names--Marriage ceremony--Female chastity--Polygamy--Divorce--Words for relationship by blood and marriage--Inheritance--Property in land--Decision of disputes--Village council--Relations with neighbouring races--Appendix: Lists of exogamous groups given by other authorities compared with those given by Mr. Stack.

The Mikir people proper--that is, those who continue to live in the hills--are divided into three sections, called Chintòng, Rònghàng, and Amri. In the days of the migration eastward from the Kopili region, Amri stayed behind, or loitered, and Chintòng and Rònghàng waited for him as they moved from stage to stage. At last, on arriving at the Dhansiri river, Chintòng and Rònghàng resolved to be only two sections in future. The laggard Amri afterwards arrived, but was not received back into full fellowship. He has no honour at the general festivals, and in the distribution of rice-beer at feasts he gets no gourd for himself, but has to drink from those of the other two. These are the conditions as they exist in the Mikir Hills and Nowgong (Duar Baguri); in Ni-hàng, however (the region of the Kopili), Amri is on an equality with the others. The Mikir Hills are chiefly inhabited by the Chintòng section, North Cachar and the hilly parts of Nowgong by the Rònghàng, and the Khasi and Jaintia Hills by Amri; but individuals of all three are found dwelling among the others.

These names, however, do not indicate true tribal divisions, supposed to be derived from a common ancestor and united in blood, and are probably in reality local- or place-names. Amri, in particular, seems to be a Khasi river-name, and Rònghàng is the legendary site of Sòt Recho's capital. The real tribal exogamous divisions run through all three, and are called kur (a Khasi word: Assamese, phoid). Each of the three sections of the race has within it the same kurs, and the individuals belonging to these kurs, whether in Chintòng, Rònghàng, or Amri, observe the same rules of exogamy.

The number and names of the kurs, or exogamous groups, are differently given by different authorities. The differences appear to be partly explained by the fact that one authority has taken for a principal group-name what another has entered as a sub-group under another larger section. In an appendix will be found the grouping according to several different authorities. Here the data given by Mr. Stack, who appears to have relied chiefly on information obtained in Duar Baguri, are reproduced.

He found that the people recognized four kurs, called respectively Ingti, Teràng, [9] Lèkthe, and Timung, under which the smaller groups (also called kur) are ranged thus--

I. Ingti. III. Lèkthe.

(1) Taro. (1) Hànse. (2) Katar. (2) Tutso. (3) Hènsèk. (3) Bòngrun. (4) Inglèng. (4) Kràmsa.

II. Teràng. IV. Timung.

(1) Be. (1) Tòkbi. (2) Kro. (2) Sèngnar. (3) Ingjar. (3) Ròngphar.

As already mentioned, these kurs are exogamous: an individual belonging to kur Ingti must go outside that kur for his wife; and similarly Teràng, Lèkthe, and Timung cannot marry wives drawn from within the kur. The sub-groups are, of course, as parts of the larger groups, also exogamous; and it is easy to perceive how one informant may count as a principal group-division what another may regard as a sub-division. All the kurs are now socially on an equality, and have no scruples as to eating together or intermarriage; their traditional rank is, however, as given above. Ingti is said to have been in former times the priestly clan (Ass. gohain); Teràng also claims this dignity, but is thought to be of lower rank; but in both cases the office has fallen entirely into desuetude. Lèkthe is said to have been the military clan, while Timung represented the rest of the people.

The Mikirs who settled in the plains of Nowgong and took to plough cultivation are called Dumrali by the Mikirs and Tholua by the Assamese. They are said to have acted as interpreters to the mission which visited the Ahom king at Sibsagar. They also have the same kurs as the other three sections of hill Mikirs.

The children are counted to their father's kur, and cannot marry within it. They may, however, marry their first cousins on the mother's side, and indeed this appears to have been formerly the most usual match. This absence of matriarchal institutions strongly marks off the Mikirs from the Khasis, from whom they have in other respects borrowed much.

The following are common personal names among the Mikirs:--

MEN. WOMEN.

Sardoka. Karèng. Mòn. Kache. Dili. Kabàn. There. Kamàng. Kàngther. Ka-èt. Tamoi. Ka-jir. Temèn. Katu. Bura. Kare. Pator. Kasàng. Lòng. Kadòm. Mèn. Dimi. Bi. Ingle. Sotera.

It is said that no meaning is attached to these names; that is, they are not given because of any meaning which they may possess. (It is evident that many of them have a meaning: e.g. Bi is a goat, Lòng a stone, Pator is a village official among the Khasis, Bura is Assamese for "an old man," Tamoi is probably the Assamese for the betel-nut (tamol.) Sotera may be corrupted from sangtara, orange.) The prefix Ka- in women's names is manifestly taken from Khasi usage. There are no surnames, but the name of the kur is used to distinguish one individual from another, as Mòn Lèkthe, Mòn Timung.