The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Khasis, by P. R. T. Gurdon

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Title: The Khasis

Author: P. R. T. Gurdon

Release Date: June 30, 2004 [EBook #12786]

Language: English with Khasi (Language spoken in N.E. India)

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Khasis

By

Major P.R.T. Gurdon, I.A.
Deputy Commissioner Eastern Bengal and Assam
Commission, and Superintendent of
Ethnography in Assam.

With an Introduction by
Sir Charles Lyall, K.C.S.I.

(Published under the orders of the Government of
Eastern Bengal and Assam)

Illustrated

Preface

This book is an attempt to give a systematic account of the Khasi
people, their manners and customs, their ethnological affinities,
their laws and institutions, their religious beliefs, their folk-lore,
their theories as to their origin, and their language.

This account would perhaps have assumed a more elaborate and ambitious
form were it not that the author has been able to give to it only
the scanty leisure of a busy district officer. He has been somewhat
hampered by the fact that his work forms part of a series of official
publications issued at the expense of the Government of Eastern Bengal
and Assam, and that it had to be completed within a prescribed period
of time.

The author gladly takes this opportunity to record his grateful
thanks to many kind friends who have helped him either with actual
contributions to his material, or with not less valued suggestions
and criticisms. The arrangement of the subjects discussed is due to
Sir Bampfylde Fuller, lately Lieutenant-Governor of the Province,
whose kindly interest in the Khasis will long be remembered by them
with affectionate gratitude. The Introduction is from the accomplished
pen of Sir Charles Lyall, to whom the author is also indebted for much
other help and encouragement. It is now many years since Sir Charles
Lyall served in Assam, but his continued regard for the Khasi people
bears eloquent testimony to the attractiveness of their character, and
to the charm which the homely beauty of their