and Jaintia Hills:--

Pineapples, turmeric, ginger, pumpkins and gourds, the egg plant,
chillies, sesamum, and a little sugar-cane. The arum [18] (_ka shiriw_)
is also extensively grown in the hills, and forms one of the principal
articles of food amongst the poorer classes; it is generally raised in
rotation with potatoes, or is planted along with Job's tears. The stem
of the arum is sometimes used as a vegetable, also for feeding pigs.

In the Jowai Sub-Division, notably at Nartiang, there are fairly good
mangoes, which are more free from worms than those grown in the plains
of Assam.

The Bhois and Lynngams cultivate lac. They plant _arhar dal, u landoo_,
in their fields, and rear the lac insect on this plant. Last year the
price of lac at Gauhati and Palasbari markets rose as high as Rs. 50
per maund of 82 lbs., it is said, but the price at the outlying
markets of Singra and Boko was about Rs. 30. The price of lac has
risen a good deal of late years. Formerly the price was about Rs. 15 to
Rs. 20 a maund. The lac trade in the Jaintia Hills and in the southern
portion of the Khyrim State is a valuable one. The profits, however,
go largely to middle-men, who in the Jaintia Hills are Syntengs from
Jowai, who give out advances to the Bhoi cultivators on the condition
that they will be repaid in lac. The Marwari merchants from the plains
attend all the plains markets which are frequented by the hill-men,
and buy up the lac and export it to Calcutta. The whole of the lac
is of the kind known as stick lac.


Hunting.