"No regular courts are held among the Kookis, but complaints are always heard before the Rajah, assisted by his muntries, whenever they may be made. Heinous crimes are very infrequent among these people. Theft is almost unknown, and they chiefly offend in slight quarrels and disputes among themselves, which are settled by their Rajah, a fine being exacted from the guilty party, according to his means and the extent of his guilt, either in wine, fowls, pigs, goats, cows, or methins. When cases of theft, burglary, or arson occur, the criminal loses his independence and becomes a bondman to the Rajah for the term of his life. Cases of murder and manslaughter are of course taken up by our authorities and punished by our laws. But the punishment awarded for murder among the Kookis was confiscation of all goods and property and perpetual bondage for the murderer, his wife, and family, who thenceforth became slaves of the Rajah and did his work. The only crime punishable by death among the Kookis was high treason, or an attempt at violence on the person of the king, and treacherous commerce with an enemy of the clan: the victim in these cases was cut to pieces with dhaos, but of course no such extreme measures can be resorted to by them in the present day. In cases of adultery and seduction the punishment is left in the hands of the aggrieved husband or father. In the former case, death might be inflicted on the adulterer by any means with impunity, but more generally it was, and now invariably is, the custom to compound with him for a large sum of money, something over and above the original price of the wife. The adulteress then becomes the property of her lover. "In cases of seduction every effort is made, and in most cases successfully, to have the guilty couple married forthwith, a penal price being put upon the bride. All the women in the village, married or single, are perfectly at the pleasure of the Rajah, and no voice would be lifted against him for cohabiting with any of them, the only prevention being a sense of immorality and an understanding among the royal families of the whole tribe generally that such conduct is infra dig.; indeed, there is little temptation, for the Rajah may have as many wives as he likes or can keep, both polygamy and concubinage being in common practice, female slaves living generally in the latter condition with respect to their masters."--Stewart's "Notes on Northern Cachar," pp. 45-48. This description is still fairly accurate, but the gradual breaking up of villages, coupled with the increased control by Government and State officers, has lessened the power of the chiefs and modified custom to a considerable extent. Lieutenant Stewart gives the following account of how the people hunted before guns were common among them:--