the skull, tail, and entrails are placed over it for three days. The jawbones are hung on a branch specially left for this purpose when the memorial post is being trimmed; a rough fence is made round the posts, on which matting representations of pythons and a bow with an arrow adjusted are hung. The latter is said to drive off the Huai, and reminds one of the similar custom of the Manipuris on the occasion of erecting the first post of a house. CHAPTER IV THE THADO CLAN The term New Kukis, which appears so often in the records of Cachar and Sylhet in the middle of the last century, and which has been adopted by Dr. Grierson in the "Linguistic Survey of India," may be taken as synonymous with the Thado clan. The clan is a very large one; Dr. Grierson in the "Linguistic Survey" estimates the numbers as follows:-- In Manipur 20,000. In Naga Hills 5,500. In Cachar Plains 5,403. In Sylhet 534. ------- Total 31,437. This estimate omits the members of the clan in North Cachar Hills and in the unadministered tracts between the Naga Hills and Manipur on the west and the Upper Chindwin district of Burma on the east. Allowing for these, we may safely conclude that the clan now numbers about 37,000 souls. The clan is divided in a manner exactly similar to the Lushei. There are four main families, all named after their progenitors, and these are further sub-divided into many eponymous branches. The whole clan traces its genealogy back to Thado and his elder brother Dongel, and beyond them to mythical heroes who lived below the surface of the ground. The late Colonel McCulloch, in his most interesting "Account of the Valley of Manipur," says, "About the names of those previous to Thado there may be some doubt, but from this great chief, from whom the whole race takes the appellation of Thado, I don't think that there is any." After many enquiries I am quite of the same opinion and have found pedigrees collected from various sources differ but slightly from that recorded by Colonel McCulloch fifty years ago. The original habitation of this clan is said to have been Kochuk, situated very far to the south of Manipur. Here I must differ from Colonel McCulloch, who says the traditional home of the Thados was in the north. There are other reasons besides tradition for believing that the Thados have come from the south, the many resemblances between them and other clans, which either still live in the centre of the Hills or did so till quite recently, and the connection between their language and those of the Sokte, Siyin, Vuite, and Ralte, so clearly established by Dr. Grierson, amply proves the southern origin of this clan. It appears almost certain that the Kamhaus, Soktes, and Siyins were the first to disturb the Thados, many of