references are there given to them all in a footnote to the passage on which Mr. Hodson comments.[1] I have again consulted all five passages, and, as they seem to me to be relevant and to confirm the view which Mr. Hodson criticizes, I will here quote them for the sake of readers who may be interested in the question, and to whom the works from which the quotations are made may not be easily accessible. I will take the passages in the order in which I have referred to them, which is also the chronological order.
(1) Colonel E. T. Dalton writes thus:
"The Garo laws of inheritance and intermarriage are singular and intricate, and it was after many enquiries in different quarters and testing the information received in various ways that I recorded the following note on the subject:
"The clans are divided into different houses called maháris (Buchanan calls them chatsibak) which may be translated motherhoods. A man cannot take to wife a girl of his own mahári, but must select from one of the maháris with whom his family have from time immemorial exclusively allied themselves. In some of the now noblest families there is but one mahári with which, as a rule, they can intermarry. This however is not irrefragable, and should maidens of that particular house be wanting, the young men may choose, or more correctly speaking, be chosen by a daughter of some other. If it be not on this account necessary to look elsewhere, a man's sister should
- ↑ Folk-lore in the Old Testament, ii. 254 (not 454, as cited by Mr. Hodson). The footnote runs as follows: "E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 63; (Sir) W. W. Hunter, Statistical Account of Assam (London, 1879), ii. 154; Census of India, 1891, Assam, by (Sir) E. A. Gait, vol. i. Report (Shillong, 1892), p. 229; Major A. Playfair, The Garos (London, 1909), pp. 68, 72 sq. According to Sir E. A. Gait, it is the husband of the youngest daughter who is bound to marry his widowed mother-in-law, and this is natural enough, since it is the youngest daughter who is her mother's heir among the Garos" (Folk-lore in the Old Testament, ii. 253 sq.).
