MENSURATION
There is no standard of weight in use throughout the tribe, but in every village there is kept a stone (ephwa) which is used in apportioning the shares of meat at feasts. The weight is generally nine to ten pounds. For trade a balance of the bismar type is used, notched to weigh in Indian seers and fractions of seers.
The standard measure for rice is chukoluk, which is regarded as one man’s wage for a day and usually weighs about six pounds. The table would be as follows:—
| 2 chukolukruso | = 1 chukoluk. |
| 3 chukoluk | = 1 sitsi. |
| 1½ sitsi | = 1 enokyak. |
Two baskets (etek) are regarded as going to one enokyak. The size of the baskets varies from village to village, and the buyer must accept the standard of the village from which he buys.
Though nowadays Lhotas occasionally try to state distance in English miles, the real measure is by echen, the distance between one temporary granary and that at the next stage on the path up from the fields. It varies from village to village. On an easy slope it may be a mile and a half, on a steep slope it will be a mile or even less.
The depth of water is either measured in echam (the height of a man) or eshi (kicks). That is to say, if a man having dived to the bottom of a pool has to kick his legs three times before he reaches the top, the pool is reckoned as three “kicks” deep. A tree is spoken of as so many phunchap (ladder-steps) high.
Just as fingers and toes are the usual counting apparatus, [[229]]so the Lhota uses the distance between the various parts of his body as standards of measurement. The distance between the tips of the fingers of the outstretched arms is called ntiya, and that from the middle of the chest to outstretched finger-tips monyak. A cubit is kecha. The spans of the thumb and first finger and thumb and middle finger are ekohundro and ekosüpo respectively. The breadth of a finger is yingro. These measurements are used for all conceivable purposes. The size of a mithan, for instance, is not stated in terms of its height at the withers, but in terms of the length of its horn in ekosüpo and yingro. Similarly, to measure a pig you pass a long slip of bamboo round its chest and measure the bamboo. Thread is never measured by length or weight. If it is in a skein, the thickness round the skein is taken, the circles formed by thumb and first finger and thumb and middle finger being called etsokhundro and etsoksüpo respectively. If it is in a ball, the ball is reckoned as a keraksüpo (big handful) or keraktero (little handful). [[230]]