_Ka tángmuri_ is a wooden pipe, which is played like a flageolet. _Ka
kynsháw_, or _shákuriaw_, are cymbals made of bell metal; _ka sháráti_,
or _ka shingwiang_, is a kind of flute made of bamboo. This instrument
is played at cremation ceremonies, and when the bones and ashes of a
clan are collected and placed in the family tomb, or _máwbah_. This
flute is not played on ordinary occasions. In the folk-lore portion
of the Monograph will be found a tale regarding it. There are other
kinds of flutes which are played on ordinary occasions. The Wárs of
the twenty-five villages in the Khyrim State make a sort of harp out
of reed, which is called _ka 'sing ding phong_. The Khasis also play
a Jews' Harp (_ka mieng_), which is made of bamboo.


Agriculture.

The Khasis are industrious cultivators, although they are behindhand
in some of their methods of cultivation, (e.g. their failure to adopt
the use of the plough in the greater portion of the district); they
are thoroughly aware of the uses of manures. Their system of turning
the sods, allowing them to dry, then burning them, and raking the
ashes over the soil, is much in advance of any system of natural
manuring to be seen elsewhere in the Province. The Khasis use the
following agricultural implements:--A large hoe (_mokhíw heh_),
an axe for felling trees (_u sdie_), a large _da_ for felling trees
(_ka wait lynngam_), two kinds of bill-hooks (_ka wáit prat_ and _ka
wáit khmut_), a sickle (_ka ráshi_), a plough in parts of the Jaintia
Hills (_ka lyngkor_), also a harrow (_ka iuh moi_). In dealing with
agriculture, the lands of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills may be divided
into the following classes:--(_a_) Forest land, (_b_) wet paddy land