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27* REYIEWS

elan... and the youngest daughter... holds the obligalion of performing the religious ceremonies of the elan. This common elan land is a strong binding force for the clanmates among the Khasis proper and this is replaced by a common Seng land among War Khasi. Seng is a cognatic group consisting of małe and female members descended from a common ancestor or ancestress whether through males or females... Among the Khasi proper, elan is malrilineal and exogamous and all movable and immovable property, devolves in the female linę, i. e., property passes from mother to daughter, debarring sons. So, the collective proprietory right on an undivided ancestral land is held by the members belonging to the elan of that ancestress. But among the War Khasis although the descent is matrilineal like the Khasi proper, childern of both sexes inherit parental property, so, as elan exogamy is the rule, undivided land of an ancestor or ancestress does not become the property of a particular elan but belongs to all the members who have descended from that ancestor or ancestress irrespective of elan.” (p. 89)

The War Khasis are divided into a number of clans. Marriage within the same elan is prohibiled.

Though adultery, barrenness, disease or insanity, are the main causes of divorce, the book under review States “that if a wife has sex relation with another person, whether willingly or not, she cannot live with her husband again,” lhcre being “a belief that if they do so the husband will die soon” (p. 102). However, dcscribing the rules of inhcritance it mentions : “Though monogamy is practiscd by the War Khasis and one cannot take a second spouse when the First is alive or divorce has not been effected, the children born out of cxtramarital union are not deprived of inheriting the property of their both parents. Thcrc is no concept,” the monograph continues, “of illegilimate issue and the children are not to sufler for the breach or violation of the social sanction by their begeller". (p. 111, Cf. p. 114)

According to the tribal belief, women conceived duc to the will “Hukum” of the “Creator of mankind" or “Traikynrad. ” But at prcsenl, “the cducated people know the biological reasons of pregnancy and conception” (p. 124). Long before the arrival of Christian and Hindu immigrants, the War Khasis believed in various guardian spirits and divinities of family, elan, river, village, forest, chickcn pox, hunting, llshing, etc. But with the impact of different racial and cultural strains Corning from time to time with missionary or economic motives, have infused clcmcnts of non-Khasi culturcs and have changcd not only their traditional religious ceremonies and rituals and belief-systems, but also thrown out of vogue their habits and customs.

The First occasion of the European entry into the hill abode of the Khasi tribe was in April 1824 when David Scott, the Brilish Govemor GeneraFs agent on the fronticr, marchcd through the Khasi Hills from Sylhet to Assam.