ted as examples:--

(1) _Wat ju ai thung jingthung ne bet symbai ha uba sniew kti_.

Do not allow plants to be planted or seeds to be sown by one who has
a bad hand.

As elsewhere, there is a belief amongst the Khasis that some people's
touch as regards agriculture is unlucky.

(2) _Thung dieng ne bet symbai haba ngen bnai, ym haba shai u bnai_.

Plant trees or sow seeds not when the moon is waxing, but when it is
on the wane.

(3) _Wei la saw bha ka bneng sepngi jan miet phin sa ioh jingrang
lashai_.

A red sky in the west in the evening is the sign of fine weather
to-morrow.

Cf. our English proverb "a red sky in the morning is a shepherd's
warning, a red sky at night is a shepherd's delight."

Crops.

The varieties of rice found in the Khasi Hills are divided into two
main classes, one grown as a dry crop on high lands, and the other
raised in valleys and hollows which are artificially irrigated from
hill streams. The lowland rice is more productive than that grown
on high lands, the average per acre of the former, according to
the agricultural bulletin, as ascertained from the results of 817
experimental crop cuttings carried out during the fifteen years
preceding the year 1898, being 11.7 maunds of paddy per acre,
as against an average of 9.4 maunds per acre (resulting from 667
cuttings made during the same period) for the latter. [16] The average
out-turn of both kinds is extremely poor, as compared with that of any
description of rice grown in the plains. The rice grown in the hills
is said by the Agricultural Department to be of inferior quality, the
grain when cleaned being of a red colour, and extremely coarse. The
cultivation of potatoes is practically confined to the Khasi Hills,
there being little or none in the Jaintia Hills. The normal out-turn of
the summer crop sown in February and harvested in June is reported by
the Agricultural Department to be five times the quantity of seed used,
and that of the winter crop, sown in August and September on the land
from which the summer crop has been taken, and harvested in December,
twice the quantity of seed. The winter crop is raised chiefly for
the purpose of obtaining seed for the spring sowings, as it is found
difficult to keep potatoes from the summer crop in good condition till
the following spring. The usual quantity of seed used to the acre at
each sowing is about 9 maunds, so that the gross out-turn of an acre
of land cultivated with pota