at both ends (as is the custom in these countries) to the Rajah, who, keeping his seat all the time, took them in his hand, and passed them to his attendant.'

Before the conclusion of the visit, tea was produced.

We

found,' says the author, this liquor extremely unlike what we had been used to drink under the same name; it was a compound of water, flour, butter, salt, and bohea tea, with some other astringent articles, all boiled, beat up, and intimately blended together.'. The Rajah took frequent occasion of conversing with the travellers, whom he treated with much urbanity. He invited them to dine with him; "my food, (said he,) consists of the simplest articles; grain, roots, and fruits. I never eat of any thing that has had breath; for so I should be the indirect cause of putting an end to the existence of animal life, which by our religion is strictly forbidden." We presume that this prohibition only extends to the priesthood; possibly only to the supreme pontiffs; for we find meat, both dressed and raw, every where eaten in Budtan and Tibet. The Rajah's sentiments breathed a spirit of humanity highly honourable to their religious faith. "Bees, (he said,) by my direction, are never disturbed: their labour is employed for the benefit of the community, in laying up a stock, which serves to rear their young, and as a resource when they cease to find food abroad. Were I, availing myself of superior power, to deprive them of this store, accumulated for their future support, how could I expect to enjoy unmolested, that of which I am myself possessed?" The Gylongs or priests are enjoined celibacy: fifteen hundred of them lodged in the palace, and no female was allowed to sleep within the walls.

The Budteas have invariably black hair, which it is their fashion. to cut close to the head. The eye is a very remarkable feature of the face: small, black, with long pointed corners, as though stretched and extended by artificial means. Their eye-lashes are so thin as to be scarcely perceptible; and the eyebrow is but lightly shaded. Below the eyes, is the broadest part of the face, which is rather flat, and narrows from the cheekbones to the chin; a character of countenance appearing first to take its rise amongst the Tartar tribes, but is by far more strongly marked in the Chinese. Their skins are remarkably smooth, and most of them arrive at a very advanced age, before they can boast even the earliest rudiments of a beard,'

Speaking of the Gylongs, I know not, (says the author,) where in the world an equal number of men would be met with, so straight, so well-proportioned, and so stout. I never beheld a more florid picture of health than was exhibited in the complexion of the mountaineers; the women in particular, with their jet black hair, and clear, brisk, black eyes, had a ruddi

Q3

ness

ness which the most florid English rustic would in vain attempt to rival.'

A narrow slip of ground, three or four miles in length, and in its widest part not exceeding one mile in breadth, was chosen for the situation of the capital. There is no town, nor indeed any house, except that allotted for the ambassador, within a mile of the palace: but a few clusters of houses are distributed in different parts among the fields.

The castle or palace of Tasisudon stands near the centre of the valley, and is a building of a quadrangular form. The length of the front exceeds that of the sides by one third: the walls are lofty, and as I conjecture upwards of 30 feet high, and they are sloped a little from the foundation to the top above the middle space, is a row of projecting balconies, to cach of which are curtains made of black hair, which are always drawn at night: below, the walls are pierced with very small windows. Passing through a spacious gateway, we came opposite to the central square building, which I must call the citadel: and this is the habitation of the Rajah. It is a very lofty building, being no less than seven stories high, each from 15 to 18 feet; it is covered over with a roof of a low pitch, composed of fir timbers, sheathed with boards of deal, which project on each side a great way beyond the walls; from the centre, there rises a square piece of masonry, which supports a canopy of copper richly gilt; and this is supposed to be immediately_over_the great idol, Mahamuni (the great anchoret, Buddha). Lam Rimbocha, the present Diva Rajah (celestial king, a title by which the Rajahs of Budtan are distinguished,) lives upon the fourth floor from the ground; above that there are two other stories; and the seventh ladder leads to the temple of Mahamuni, which is covered with the gilded canopy.'

Near to every religious edifice, a small square temple containing an image is seen, placed like a centinel on the road side. They have one small doorway, which always remains closed; and travellers uncover their heads, and dismount from their horses, as they pass. The mystic words "Oom mauni païmi oom" are frequently engraven on rocks, in large and deep characters; and sometimes Captain Turner saw them on the sides of hills, yet could never obtain any satisfactory explanation of them. The word which begins and ends this formula is the sacred monosyllable composed of the initials of the Hindu trinity; the two intermediate words have probably been imperfectly stated by the author, who had no acquaintance with the language. With a very slight mutation of letters, the sentence may either signify, "I adore the feet of the Muni (Buddha);" or "I am absorbed in contemplating (the mystic syllable) oom.”

During Captain Turner's stay, a bloodless insurrection shook the throne of Budtan: but it was quelled by exertions almost

as

Every kind of dis

as feeble as those which supported it. cipline and order is totally disregarded in their mode of warfare; stratagem is more practised than open assault: they engage in general as marksmen, and wait their opportunity to fire unobserved. Both parties are so careful to conceal themselves, that seldom any thing is visible but the top of a tufted helmet, or the end of a bow.' Yet poisoned arrows are in the list of their weapons: but the effect of this vegetable poison was less fatal than their terror represented it.

A few fruits are found here in great perfection; their oranges are exquisite, their peaches and apricots very good; so also is the pomegranate; walnuts cannot possibly be better. Yet here Naturé does. every thing; it remains only for them to extend their hands, and partake of what she offers. I have always observed their corn fields very neatly dressed; but in this the men can claim but little merit, for by far the greatest labour falls upon the fair sex; they plant, they weed, and to them, eventually, the task falls, of applying the sickle and the flail.'

Among other co-incidences with the Hindus, may be mentioned the veneration which the Budteas profess for the lotus; (nymphea nilotica;) for monkeys; and the celebration of the Dasohera and Divali, in honour of the goddesses Durga and Cali. The order of Gylongs is very numerous, notwithstanding the severity of the discipline; since every family consisting of more than four boys is obliged to contribute one of them to this order.. The officers of state being usually selected from this number, it is encouraged by ambition as well as by fanaticism. In fact, the higher ranks of men, entirely engrossed by political or ecclesiastical duties, leave to the husbandman and labourer, to those who till the fields and live by their industry, the exclusive charge of propagating the species.'

On the 8th of September 1783, the travellers left Tasisudon, after a residence of three months, to prosecute their journey to the court of Tisu Lama. Lofty mountains still impeded their progress; and at Paibesa, they appeared as if fashioned into hanging gardens. Paro is 21 miles from Tasisudon, and the seat of a viceroy; it stands in a valley larger than that of the capital, and intersected by the Pa-chu; it boasts the only market in Budtan, and is famous for the manufacture of gods and forging of arms. Ducajung, nine miles farther, is a fortress built on the crown of a low rocky hill. Eleven miles beyond it, is Sana, the last village in Budtan, consisting of ten houses; and here the thermometer, which at Tasisudon never was lower than 60°, fell to 46°. The Pachu rolled its waters at the foot of the mountains; and on the opposite bank grazed a herd of chowry tailed cattle, called "yae" by the Tartars.

The only essential difference between the yac and an English bull consists in the thick coat of long hair, which covers the former. The tail is composed of a prodigious quantity of long flowing glossy hair, and is so abundantly well furnished that not a joint of it is perceptible: but it has much the appearance of a large cluster of hair set artificially on. These animals are universally esteemed throughout the east. The chain of mountains situated between the latitudes of 27 and 28°, which divides Tibet from Budtan, and of which the summits are commonly covered with snow, forms their favorite haunt. They are extremely useful as beasts of burden, and the cows yield an abundant quantity of rich milk.

Bridges, in a country composed of mountains, and abounding with torrents, must necessarily be very frequent: the traveller has commonly some one to pass on every day's journey. They are of different constructions, generally of timber; and if the width of the river will admit, laid horizontally from rock to rock. Over broader streams, a triple or quadruple row of timbers, one row projecting over the other and inserted into the rock, sustain two sloping sides, which are united by an horizontal platform, of nearly equal length: thus the centre is, of course, raised very much above the current, and the whole bridge forms the figure nearly of three sides of an octagon. The widest river in Budtan has an iron bridge, consisting of a number of iron chains, supporting a matted platform.'

On the summit of Sumunang, in lat. 28°, a long row of little inscribed flags, fixed in rude heaps of stones, was fluttering in the wind; they marked the boundaries of Budtan and Tibet.

If Budtan, compared with Bengal, exhibits a vast contrast of country and climate, there is no nearer analogy between Tibet and Budtan.

Budtan presents to the view, nothing but the most mis-shapen irregularities; mountains covered with eternal verdure, and rich with abundant forests of large and lofty trees. Almost every favourable aspect of them, coated with the smallest quantity of soil, is cleared and adapted to cultivation, by being shelved into horizontal beds; not a slope, nor narrow slip of land between the ridges, lies unim proved. There is scarcely a mountain, whose base is not washed by some rapid torrent, and many of the loftiest, bear populous villages, amidst orchards, and other plantations, on their summits and on their sides. It combines, in its extent, the most extravagant traits of rude nature and laborious art.

Tibet, on the other hand, strikes a traveller, at first sight, as one of the least favoured countries under heaven, and appears to be in a great measure incapable of culture. It exhibits only low rocky hills, without any visible vegetation; or extensive arid plains, both of the most stern and stubborn aspect, promising full as little as they produce. Its climate is cold and bleak in the extreme; from the severe effects of which, the inhabitants are obliged to seek refuge in sheltered

valleys,

valleys, and hollows, or amidst the warmest aspects of the rocks. Yet perhaps Providence, in its impartial distribution of blessings, has bestowed on each country a tolerably equal share. The advantages that one possesses in fertility, and in the richness of its forests and its fruits, are amply counterbalanced in the other by its multitudinous flocks, and invaluable mines. As one seems to possess the pabulum of vegetable, in the other we find a superabundance of animal life. The variety and quantity of wild fowl, game, and beasts of prey, flocks, droves, and herds, in Tibet, are astonishing. In Budtan, except domestic creatures, nothing of the sort is to be seen. I recollect meeting with no wild animal except the monkey, in all my travels; and of game, I saw only a few pheasants once near Chuca.

The castle of Phari stood in a valley at the foot of Sumunang; with an abundance of musk deer in the vicinity. This animal is observed to delight in the most intense cold, and is always found in places bordering on snow. Two long curved tusks proceed from the upper jaw, and are directed downward. The deer are about the height of a moderately sized hog, which they resemble much in the figure of the body. The greatest singularity in them is the sort of hair with which they are covered, and which grows erect all over the body; partaking less of the nature of hair than of feathers; or rather resembling the porcupine's quill. The musk is a secretion formed in a, little bag, or tumor, resembling a wen, situated at the navel; and it is found only in the male.

A ridge of mountains, covered with snow during the whole. year, surrounded the travellers after they left Phari.-This they concluded to be the greatest altitude of this part of Tibet, perhaps of all Asia, from the rivers on the south side flowing in a southerly direction towards Bengal; while those which originate in the northern side run towards Tisulumbu, and augment the volume of the Brahmaputro.-Here our travellers saw great numbers of wild horses, or Gurcas.

They were very shy, and kept so far aloof, that we could not well distinguish their marks and make; but with a glass I could discern long ears, like those of an ass, or mule, and a slender tail with little hair upon it, reaching about as low as the hock. The ears, neck, body, and tail were of one colour, approaching nearly to what we term a fawn colour; the face, belly, and legs were lighter, indeed almost white. They are said to be extremely fleet; and are never taken alive to be rendered serviceable, or domesticated: the young indeed are sometimes caught, but they soon pine away and die.'

The small village of Chalu lay 34 miles from Phari; the intermediate country being almost a desert, swept by impetuous winds, which in summer involve the traveller in clouds of dust, and in winter produce a degree of cold capable of splitting the heads of animals which are exposed to it, during the night.

The