There is no attempt at any system of laws or government amongst them, beyond the fact that they have something of a village system, and there are certain customs which all observe. Quarrels are wiped out with blood. Their religion, in common with that of all the other mountain tribes of the frontiers, consists in propitiating and consulting the _nats_. For this an animal must be slaughtered—a buffalo, a bullock, a goat, a pig, a dog, or a fowl. The slaughtered animal is always afterwards eaten. In consulting the _nats_ they observe the direction in which the blood of the sacrificed animal flows; this and similar omens are observed and acted upon. When raiding, or on a journey, or passing through a notoriously unhealthy jungle, sacrifices are frequently made, the animals being taken with them on purpose. Dogs are preferred for this object, as they follow, and require no carrying or leading. If the omens prove unfavourable they fear to carry out their purpose. Raids are frequently abandoned in this way at the last moment, and after they have travelled long distances. If, when the omens prove unfavourable, the parties are nevertheless desirous of accomplishing their purpose, as for instance in the case of an intended marriage, the _nats_ are periodically consulted until they are favourable. This must always happen in time if they are only consulted frequently enough. The Chins are very much given to drunkenness, and are inclined to make of any and every incident a special occasion for getting drunk. A visitor, a birth, a marriage, a death, a case of sickness, are all possible and likely occasions for a carousal. In this worship of Bacchus they differ essentially from their Buddhist neighbours; but they may fairly claim to resemble in that respect many individuals of a distant race, and a race laying claim to a far higher civilisation. They have a novel mode of drinking the rice beer they manufacture for these occasions. The liquor is stored in jars standing two feet in height, and half full of fermenting grain. A hollow bamboo, the thickness of one’s little finger, is thrust into the jar and pressed well down into the grain. The company sit round and take sucks in turn. Of medicine and surgery they know nothing. When they fall sick they make no attempt at medicine, but merely consult the _nats_ to ascertain the result, and propitiate them to avert the calamity. Scarcely any clothing is worn by the men, and that of the women, though sufficient for mere decency, is scanty, the legs being entirely bare. They are all fond of ornaments. Necklaces of beads of all kinds are much worn, cocks’ feathers appear in the topknots of the men, and a kind of brass skewer is worn in the hair. They are also fond of wearing deer’s teeth and cowries. Telegraph wire, a new importation into their territory, forms a great temptation to them, inasmuch as a few inches of that metal, bent into a circle, forms a most becoming earring.