they perform a ceremony,
_kynjoh-hka-skain_, when they tie three pieces of dried fish to the
ridge pole of the house and then jump up and try to pull them down
again. Or they kill a pig, cut a piece of the flesh with the skin
attached, and fix it to the ridge pole, and then endeavour to dislodge
it. The Syntengs at Nartiang worship _U Biskurom_ (Biswakarma) and _Ka
Siem Synshar_ when a house is completed, two fowls being sacrificed,
one to the former, the other to the latter. The feathers of the fowls
are affixed to the centre post of the house, which must be of _u
dieng sning_, a variety of the Khasi oak. The worship of a Hindu god
(Biswakarma), the architect of the Hindu gods, alongside the Khasi
deity _Ka Siem Synshar_, is interesting, and may be explained by
the fact that Nartiang was at one time the summer capital of the
kings of Jaintia, who were Hindus latterly and disseminated Hindu
customs largely amongst the Syntengs. Mr. Rita says that amongst the
Syntengs, a house, the walls of which have been plastered with mud,
is a sign that the householder has an enemy. The plastering no doubt
is executed as a preventive of fire, arson in these hills being a
common form of revenge.

Amongst the Khasis, when a daughter leaves her mother's house and
builds a house in the mother's compound, it is considered _sang_,
or taboo, for the daughter's house to be built on the right-hand side
of the mother's house, it should be built either on the left hand or
at the back of the mother's house.

In Nongstoin it is customary to worship a deity called _u'lei
lap_ (Khasi, _u phan_), by nailing up branches of the Khasi oak,
interspersed with jaw-bones of cattle and the feathers of fowls,
to the principal post, which must be of _u dieng sning_. The Siem
priestess of the Nongkrem State at Smit and the ladies of the Siem
family perform a ceremonial dance before a large post of oak in the
midst of the Siem priestesses' house on the occasion of the annual
goat-killing ceremony. This oak post is furnished according to custom
by the _lyngskor_ or official spokesman of the Siem's Durbar. Another
post of oak in this house is furnished by the people of the State.

The houses of the well-to-do Khasis of the present day in Mawkhar and
Cherrapunji are built after the modern style with iron roofs, chimneys,
glass windows and doors. In Jowai the well-to-do traders have excellent
houses of the European pattern, which are as comfortable as many
of