The Mikir people have always been agriculturists. Their villages, in the hills which are their proper habitat, are set up in clearings in the forest, and are shifted from place to place when the soil has been exhausted by cropping. Their houses are large and substantial, and are strongly put together. The Mikirs are not now (if they ever were1), as Colonel Dalton relates in his Ethnology of Bengal, in the habit of lodging several families, or even the whole village, in one house. The inhabitants of a house are all of one family, but may often be numerous, as married sons frequently live with their parents.

The Mikir house is built on posts, and the floor is raised several feet above the ground. The material of the super-structure is bamboo, slit and flattened out, and the whole is thatched with san-grass. A moderate elevation, with a flat top, is preferred for building; a slope will be taken if no better site can be found.

The house is divided lengthwise by a partition called arpÒng, or nÒksÈk-arpÒng, into kÀm, the guests’ or servants’ chamber, and kut, the living-room of the family. KÀm is on the right side as you enter, and the only door into the house leads into it. In kÀm a platform or chang, called tibung, raised above the floor the diameter of a bamboo, runs along the outside wall; this may be divided off laterally into rooms for sleeping. In kut, separated off by a partition on the side of the outer wall, is a long, narrow chamber, one bamboo’s diameter lower than the floor, called vo-roi, in which the fowls and goats are kept at night; it has a separate door, called vo-roi-amehÀn. In kut, towards the back, is the fireplace (mehip). The space before it is dÀm-thÀk, where the family sleep, and the bamboo paddy-receptacle stands. Behind the fireplace is dÀm-buk, a vacant space, where the grown-up daughter or old woman sleeps. Between the fire and the vo-roi is the rice-pot (sÀng-rÀngtik), holding the stock of husked rice. Between the fire and the partition (arpÒng) is the kut-athÈngthÒr, a space for miscellaneous articles. Above the vo-roi a shelf is raised under the roof, called vo-harlip, for pots, etc. Opposite the fireplace is a door leading into kÀm.

In kÀm, if the house is large, there are two fireplaces. Before the fire the space is called kÀm-athÈngthÒt, or nÒksÈk. In the corner of the front wall and the partition (arpÒng) are put the water-chungas (lÀng-bÒng); it is called lÀng-tenun. The front door is called hÒngthu, the back door pÀn, or pÀn-hÒngthu.

The front veranda is called hÒng-kup. The tibung runs out into it, and the part beyond the front wall of the house is called thÈng-roi-rai, “the place for bringing (or storing) firewood” (thÈng). Beyond the hÒng-kup the platform extends unroofed (hÒng-plÀng). If the house be a large one, a hÒng-pharla, roofed over, for strangers to lodge in, is made on the right side of the hÒng-plÀng, but disconnected with the thÈng-roi-rai; between it and the latter is the ladder to gain access to the platform (dÒndÒn), usually a tree-trunk with notches cut in it for the feet. The hÒng-pharla may extend also across the front of the house; it is roofed over, but open towards the house. Similarly, at the back of the house is the pÀng-hÒngkup, or back veranda, and the unroofed pÀng beyond. No ladder gives access to this.

Under the house are the pigsties, phÀk-roi, and in front is a yard or compound (tikup), usually fenced round.

The furniture of the house is of the simplest description. The floor, or a raised platform of bamboo, serves as a bed. A block of wood (inghoi; Ass. pira) is used as a stool to sit on. Baskets of bamboo and cane are employed as cupboards in which to store the household goods, the paddy, and the clothes. These baskets are of various shapes and sizes, and bear many different names. Joints of bamboo (Ass. chunga; Mikir, lÀng-bÒng) are used for holding water, and also as boxes to contain valuables of all kinds.

The Mikirs have few manufactures. Weaving is done by the women of the family on rude wooden looms (pÈ-therÀng), the cotton raised in their fields being previously spun on a wheel (mi-thÒngrÀng). They also raise e?i silk (inki), the cocoon of the Attacus ricini, fed on the castor-oil plant, and weave it into coarse fabrics, chiefly the bor-kapor, or blanket, used in the cold weather. They dye their thread with indigo (sibu), a small patch of which is grown near every house. The indigo is not derived from Indigofera, but from a species of Strobilanthes, generally identified as S. flaccidifolius. Mr. Stack notes that there are two kinds, bu-thi and bu-jir; the latter, he says, is trained up poles, and has a longer leaf. The leaves of the plant are bruised in a wooden mortar and mixed with water, and the blue colour develops, as in ordinary indigo, in a few days’ time by chemical change. Besides indigo, they use a red dye, the source of which is probably the same as the Khasi red dye (see Khasi Monograph, p. 60).

Blacksmiths (hemai) have existed among them from remote times, and they can fashion their own daos and various kinds of knives. They also make needles (for which old umbrella-ribs are in much request), and hooks for fishing.

They also make their own gold and silver ornaments (necklaces, bracelets, rings, ear-ornaments).

Pottery is made without the wheel, as among the Khasis (Monograph, p. 61). It is thick and durable, and well burnt. There are few potters among them, and the accomplishment is not common.

In all these branches of manufacture the tendency, with the increase of intercourse and the cessation of isolation, is to give up domestic workmanship and rely more upon outside markets.

The main crops are summer rice (maikum), sown with the first rains and reaped in November-December, and cotton (phelo), also grown in the rains and gathered in the cold weather. The system of jhuming, by which land is prepared for cultivation by cutting down and burning the jungle, is in no respect different from the practice of all hill-tribes in the province. They do not plant out their rice, nor use the plough in cultivating it. There is no irrigation.

Besides these main crops, castor-oil is grown for feeding the e?i silkworm; maize (thÈngthe), turmeric (tharmit), yams (hÈn, Colocasia), red pepper (birik), aubergines (Hindi, bain?gan; Mikir, hepi), and ginger (hÀnso) are also cultivated in small patches. Another crop is lac, grown on branches of the arha? plant (see Khasi Monograph, p. 47).

When Mr. Stack wrote, the most important institution from the point of view of agriculture was the association or club of the dekas (Ass.), or young men (from twelve to sixteen, eighteen, or twenty years of age) of the village (Mikir, ri-so-mar); but it is reported that this useful form of co-operation is now falling into desuetude. In former days the village youths (as in Naga-land) used to live together in a house by themselves, called in Mikir maro or terÀng (in Assamese, deka-chang).2 Now there is no maro, and the risomar live in the gaon?bura’s house, in the hÒng-pharla, the place in which strangers are lodged. They send a boy to bring their food from their homes, and all eat together. Each man’s share is brought in a leaf-bundle (Àn-bÒr) to keep it warm. The gaon?bura calls the people together, and proposes that, having so many lads in the village, they should start a lads’ club. If agreed to, the union of the risomar is formed, and the lads take up their quarters in his house. The club is organized under regular officers appointed by themselves. The gaon?bura has general authority over them, but their own chief is the klÈng sarpo. Next comes the klÈng-dun, then the sodar-kethe, then the sodar-so or phÀndiri, then the sÀngho-kerai (“he who fetches the company”), then the barlÒn (“carrier of the measuring-rod”). Other officers are the chÈng-brup-pi and chÈng-brup-so (drummers, chief and lieutenant), the phÀn-kri (the lad who waits on the klÈng sarpo), the motÀn ar-e and motÀn arvi (“the right and left outside strips of the field”), the lÀngbÒng-po (“carrier of the water-chunga”), arphÈk-po (“carrier of the broom”), and the chinhÀk-po (“carrier of the basket of tools”). The risomar all work in the fields together, each having his own strip (a-mo) to till. The village fields are allotted each to one house, and the grown men confine their work to their own fields; but the risomar go the round of all the fields in the village.

Work is enforced by penalties. They used to roast those who shirked their share; now they beat them for failure to work. If the klÈng sarpo finds a lad refractory, he reports him to the gaon?bura.

Villages like having deka clubs. They help greatly in cultivation, practice dancing and singing, and keep alive the village usages and tribal customs. They are in great request at funerals, which are the celebrations in which most spirit is shown.

Hunting, with spears and dogs, is practised. The objects of the chase are deer and wild pig; also the iguana (Ass. gui) and tortoise. The dog barks and follows up the track by scent. They also set traps (arhÀng) for tigers, with a spear placed so as to be discharged from a spring formed by a bent sapling; twice round the tiger’s pug gives the height of his chest, at which the spear is pointed; a rope of creeper stretched across the path releases the spring when the tiger passes that way and comes against it.

Fishing is done with rod and line, but chiefly by means of traps and baskets, as in Assam generally. The trap (ru) is a basket of bamboo, constructed so that the fish can get in but cannot get out, and is fixed in an opening in a fence (a-ru-pat) placed in a stone dam built across a stream.

The staple food is rice, which is husked in the usual way, by being pounded with a long pestle in a wooden mortar, and cooked by the women of the family. The flesh of cows is not eaten; there is said to be a dislike even to keep them, but this prejudice is now dying out. Milk is not drunk. Fowls, goats, and pigs are kept for food, but eaten chiefly at sacrifices; eggs are eaten. A delicacy is the chrysalis of the eri silkworm (Attacus ricini); it is eaten roasted and curried. Children (but not grown folk) cook and eat crabs and rats. In cooking meat, spits (Òk-akrÒn) are used; the meat is either cut up and skewered, or a large lump is placed whole on the embers; it is thoroughly cooked. Fish is cut into slices and put in the sun to dry, or smoked. Meat also is cut into strips and dried on frames in the sun.

The vegetables are those commonly used by the Assamese. Sugar-cane (nÒk) is not much grown. A favourite seasoning is mint (lopÒng-brik).

Men and women eat together, within the house. The right hand is used in eating. Leaf-plates are most used, but platters of pot-metal are also found. No knife is used in eating: the meat is cut up beforehand.

The first meal is cooked and eaten at 7 or 8 a.m., and consists of rice. The evening meal is cooked after the day’s field-work is over, unless there be a cook in the house. At each meal a pinch of the food is put aside for the God (arnÀm).

The national drink is rice-beer (hÒr, hÒrpo), which is made by each household for itself. The rice is cooked, and well broken up on a mat. It is then mixed with a ferment called thÀp (Bengali, bakhar), made of powdered rice with certain kinds of leaves pounded into it, and the whole dried for use as required. After this has been thoroughly mixed with the boiled rice, the latter is heaped up and covered with plantain leaves, and put aside in the house. In three or four days, in the hot weather, fermentation sets in; in the cold weather a longer time is required. It is then put into an earthern jar or kalsi (Beng.) and water added, after which it is emptied into a conical basket, whence it is allowed to strain through a bamboo joint into a pot below. To make hÒr (Ass. modh), rice is taken from the basket and warmed with water, which is strained off, and is the modh or hÒrpo; the rice is thrown to the pigs. The better and stronger beer is that which was drained off the original conical basket, and is called hÒr-alÀng.

ArÀk (Hind.) is the spirit distilled from the fermented rice mixed with water. The still is a rude one of earthern pots connected by a bamboo. A stronger stuff is made by distilling hÒr-alÀng.

HÒr will keep good for two months if left untouched. It is a common family drink. Gourds are used for keeping it in and carrying it about for use.

Drunkenness is not common in the villages, and the ceremonies and festivities at which beer is drunk are not noisy. The me or general council, however, when large quantities are consumed, is sometimes noisy.

Opium is used to a large extent by the Mikirs as by other Assamese (Mr. Allen states that nearly all male adults indulge in it). Tobacco is smoked, and also chewed with betel. The bowl of the tobacco-pipe is made of burnt clay or of bamboo root. Betel-nut (kove; Khasi, kwai) is largely consumed in the usual way, with lime and pan-leaf (bithi); and (as among the Khasis) time and distance are computed by the interval required to chew a nut. (The phrase is ingtÀt e-Òm-ta er, “the time it takes to chew the nut and pan-leaf red”: ingtÀt, roll for chewing; e-, one; Òm, chew; er, red.)