amongst the Khasis at births. Teknonomy to some extent prevails
amongst some of these Malay tribes as with the Khasis. It will be
seen from the above notes that there are some interesting points
of affinity between the Khasis and some of the Malay tribes, and if
we add that the Khasis are decidedly Malay in appearance, we cannot
but wonder whether the Malays have any connection not only with the
Mon-Khmêr family, but also with the Khasis, with the Ho-Mundas, and
with the Naga tribes mentioned by Mr. Peal in his interesting paper
published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, already
referred to. We will study the strong linguistic affinities between
these peoples in the section which deals with language.

M. Aymonier in "Le Cambodge" mentions the matriarchate as having been
prevalent apparently amongst the primitive races of Cambodia, and
notes that the ancient Chinese writers spoke of Queens in Fou-nan
(Cambodia). If the Khmêrs were the ancient people of Cambodia,
here we have an important landmark in common between them and the
Khasis. M. Aymonier goes on to speak of priestesses, and the Cambodian
taboo, _tam_ or _trenam_, which Mr. Lowis, the Superintendent of
Ethnography in Burma, suggests may be akin to the Khasi _sang_.


Dress.

Dress may be divided into two divisions, ancient and modern. It will
be convenient to take the former division first. The Khasi males
of the interior wear the sleeveless coat or _jymphong_, which is a
garment leaving the neck and arms bare, with a fringe at the bottom,
and with a row of tassels across the chest; it is fastened by frogs
in front. This coat, however, may be said to be going out of fashion