News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1908-03-11
interesting Letter From India

EuitOf " GUS uHU CtttHtU
While some of the readers of the News
AND CITIZEN would be glad to hear from
me, many | am sure would like to hear
| about the Garos for whom and with
whom | am laboring, so l send you the
following There are about one hundred
thousand of the Caro- people. They are
one of the many. many tribes. who live
in Assam, India. They occupy the Caro-
Hills, which are at the extreme westrend
of the range of hills which form the
south eastern boundary of the Brahma-
putra Valley.
Thirty-tive years ago the Garos were
| thought to be cruel savages with no re-
deemng feature in their character.
There were no means of communication
that the hills were difficult of access and
| deadly to the foreigner, on account Of
! the fever laden forests, no one cared to
explore this section. Murderous raids
upon the villages in the plains below,
when human heads as we'll as other tro =
plies were brought back into the hills,
compelled British Govt to take this
| tribe under it's rule. England soon
| found that she had difficult task on
| her hands and it was at the request of
the English officers in control here that
| the missionaries entered upon the work
| ofcivilizing and ,Christianizing the Garos.
The Caro- Hills are covered with forests,
huge trees, bamboOs and only here and
there an open cultivation The villages
are situated in the little valleys and near
| ly always on a piece Of sloping ground.
The houses run ont from the side of the
hill and although one end is on the
ground, the other is high above it and
supported by long posts. An open space
is left in each village where different
duties, such as pounding rice, offering
sacrifices and cremating the dead, are
| carried on. A bachelors house is found
in each village, for each male must
leave his fathers house at the age OF
/ fourteen.
For six months of the year the Garos
do not live in their village, but in their
fields some distance away perhaps,
wherelthey build themselves other houses
! high up in the branches of trees, in or
der to be safe from the attacks of many
| wild animals which infest the jungle.
One day, since | came o Tura, word was
sent us that elephants were invading the
village five miles from us. Men were
| sent to help and thirty wild elephants
were driven away.
Every Saturday troupes of Garos may
| be seen coming from every direction to
market, ladened with the products of
| their fields, cotton, rice, red peppers,
| etc. Everything is brought in baskets
and the basket swings from the head and
| is carried by means of a bamboo strap
| over the forehead. The Caro- women
! travel with their husbands and neither
| are birdened by clothing. The caro-
| women wear a little petticoat about is
inches long and just sufficiently wide to
| meet around the waist. The Caro- man
| wears narrow loin cloth, six inches
wide, and both wear puggaree, which is
| a piece of cloth wound around the head,
leaving the crown uncovered. In the
colder weather each have strip of white
cotton cloth to wrap around the shoulders.
The Garos are divided into clans, that
| is, they have only three, what we would
call, family names. Every Caro- is
| either a Momin, Marak or a Sangma.
| Marriage must be between members of
different clans and the children belong to
the mothers clan, not to that of the
father. The fathers people are not re-
lated to the child. An property, as well
as the family name, passes through the
| mothers side of the household. Girls,
and not the boys, inherit the property.
Marriage is civil contract and must
come from the girl. There is no cast
distinction. In all these things the hill
tribes differ from the people of the plains.
When a Caro- dies his body is laid in
state. surrounded by mourners, after
which it is cremated and then one year
after the death. two wooden posts are
set up. as memorial posts, one carved
and dressed like = human being, the