the population is employed in cultivation. The Khasis are excellent
labourers, and cheerful and willing, but they at once resent bad
treatment, and are then intractable and hard to manage. Khasis are
averse to working in the plains in the hot-weather months.


Apiculture.

I am indebted to Mr. Rita for the following remarks on apiculture in
the Khasi and Jaintia Hills.

There are two kinds of indigenous bees in the Khasi Hills: one
domesticated, called _u ngap_ (_apis Indica_), and the other _u
lywai_, which is never domesticated, and is very pugnacious; its
hives are difficult of access, being always located in very high
cliffs. A few hives of a third class of bee are now-a-days to be
found in and around the station of Shillong, i.e. the Italian. This
bee was imported into the hills by Messrs. Dobbie and Rita, and the
species became propagated in the following manner. The bees had been
just established in a hive, where they had constructed a brood comb,
when the hive was robbed by some Khasis for the sake of the _larvæ_
it contained, which they wished to consume as food; but the queen bee
escaped and established other colonies, one of which was afterwards
captured by Mr. Rita, the others establishing themselves at places in
the neighbourhood. The hive used by the Khasis is of a very primitive
description. It is usually a hollow piece of wood, about 2 1/2 to 3
ft. in length and 10 or 12 in. in diameter. A small door is placed at
each end of the log, one for the bees to go in and out, and the other
for the removal of the honey when wanted. The honey-combs are broken
and the honey is extracted by squeezing the comb with the hand. Wax is