17
(T
a space for a house, building a new one, and preparing
the ground for a crop.
The Lepchas, like true Buddhists, bury their dead.
In person they are short, averaging about five feet
in height. Five feet six is above the usual height,
and four feet eight is a common stature among the
men. The total absence of beard, and the fashion
of parting the hair along the crown of the head, adds
to a somewhat womanly expression of countenance
in the men, and the loose jacket with wide sleeves
which they wear, contributes still more to render it
rather difficult for strangers to distinguish the sexes,
especially in middle age.
Nos. 107—108. Bhotias, Sikhim.
The Sikhim Bhotias are those subjects of Sikhim
who live in thevalleys approaehing the snowy ränge,
as distmguished from the inhabitants of the Terai,
or sub-Himalayan part of the country, who are
mostly of Meech origin. Bhotias extend along the
whole line of the passes leading to the plains from
the Himalayan ränge; and, with the name, have
generally retained unchanged the lingual and physical
characteristics, and even the manners, customs, and
dress of their transnivean brethren the Tibetans.
d.—NIPAL AND SlMLA.
No. 109. Limboos.
The term Limboo is a corruption of Ekthoomba,
and is generally used to designate the whole population
of tlie mountainous country lying between the
Dood-Koosi and the Kanki rivers, in Nipal. Their
original country is Chung, in Tibet. Although they
have been long in close contact with the Hindoos,
there is not any perceptible mixture of the blood to be
observed, whether in more regulär features, or in the
absenee of the small low nose of the Mongolian
races, and presence of the beard. In religion they
are neither Hindoos nor Buddhists; thougli they
outwardly conform, as their locality requires, to the
praetiees of either creed. They believe in one great
god, called Sham-mung, and worship many minor
deities. J
No. 110. Magars.
The Magars are a tribe of no very great magnitude,
resident in Nipal. They are unquestionably a
people of the Southern side of the Himalayas, and
their original, country is Sikhim, from which they
were first driven west by the Lepehas across the
Meehi and Konki rivers, and thence further west by
the Limboos beyond the Arun and Doodkoosbi.
ihey are largely enlisted into the Nipalese army
and are excellent soldiers, having formed a eonsiderable
portion of the Goorkha regiment enlisted
by Sir C. Napier in 1850.
No. 111. Goorung' (Nipal).
Goorungs of Nipal are a division of the
r Burbuttiahs, ’ and therefore nominally Hindoos
unifo ™ly selectingan altitude
of 5,000 or 6,000 feet, especially between Jumla and
Kirant, \yhere they rear immense flocks of the Barwal
goat. They exhibit, in common with most of the
abonginal tnbes of Nipal, a modified form of the
Mongolian type, retaining, like the Magars, their
own vernacular tongue, though, from long intermixture
with the Khas, they have also acquired the
language of the latter.
From their energy of charaeter, love of enterprise,
freedom from the shackles of easte, unadulterated
military habits, and perfect suhjectibility to diseiplme,
they are eminently litte d for a military
Ho. 112. Goorkha, Brahmin, and Sood.
Members of the tliree principal classes in Nipal
are liere represented. The short, square figure on
the proper right of the group is a Goorkha, He
belongs to the Khas, or Kshuttrie division of the
people, which, though of aboriginal descent, Claims
to belong to the ancient military division of Hindoolsm,
but has a marked distinetion from the Rajpoot
tnbes of India. . The true Goorkha has, so to speak,
lew Hindoo prejudices. He can eat any food except
beet. He needs no particular care in making his
cooking place, when absent from liorne; and is in
every respect, a better soldier than the Hindoo of
the plains of Upper India.
The Goorkha represented, is in his ordinary costume,
and armed with his national vveapons, the
bow, and the kooken, or curved knife or bill, which,
in Ins hands and at close quarters, is a very deadlv
weapon. J
1 he middle figure of the group is a Nipalese
Brahmin, who, as deseended from Aryan stock, contrasts
Strongly with the Goorkha, whose progenitors
were I uraman abongines.
Although strong by religious position, the Brahmms
of Nipal do not ever appear to have aspired to
the condition of rulers of the country. The present
royal family belongs to the Khas, which in its turn
has twelve subdivisions, again divided into many
separate clans, which rank, as it were, in groups.
Beside the Khas, there are also Ektharga, Thakoori,
MagGr, and Garung, which are exclusively military
tribes (Kshuttnes), subdivided, like the Khas, into
clans or families, whose designations are derived
evidently from local and aboriginal sources, and
.H le hifluence of Brahminism did not
affect the original Constitution of the military tribes
who accepted Hindooism as a religion.
Thethird figure is a Sood, who represents the
mercantile dass of Nipal, but which is now mucli
scattered along the frontier, and into the Punjab.
No. 113. Bhotia, Buddhist.
c.—Tibet.
„The inhabitants of the Himalayan valleys are of
libetan origin ; their language and assoeiations
(8834.)
differ from those of the people of the plains; to
tliem the name Bhotia, which belongs in strict
ness to the inhabitants of Tibet only, is generally
applied; the Tibetans proper being, on aceount of
