These Books, Together With A Number Of Rudely-Printed Papers, Of The
Nature Of Tracts, One Of Which I Carried
Away, containing some of the
characters similar to that on the inscribed stones, appear to have been
printed at Lassa,
[20] the capital of Thibet Proper, and from there,
the head-quarters of the religion in these parts, all the musical
instruments and other paraphernalia belonging to the temples are
also sent. One exception, however, I discovered; this was an empty
brandy-bottle, bearing a magnificent coloured label, which certainly
could not have been issued from the Grand Lama's religious stores. To
the English eye, or rather nose, it had but little of the odour of
sanctity about it; but here it evidently held a high position, and
was prominently placed among the temporal possessions of "the Gods."
The women here, and those we met on the road during the last two
marches, wore a curious head-dress, differing from anything of the kind
we had before seen. It consisted of a broad band extending from the
forehead to the waist behind, and studded thickly with large coarse
turquoises. These generally decrease in size from the forehead, where
there is a larger turquoise than the others, down to the waist, and
where the hair ends, it is joined into a long worsted tail terminating
at the heels. Some of these bands must be of considerable value,
but the proprietors, although otherwise in complete rags, will not
part with them for any consideration. One lady whom I accosted on
the subject, thought I was going to murder her, and took to her
heels forthwith. In general, however, the fair sex here carefully
hide both their charms and their turquoises behind the nearest rock
or the most convenient cover that presents itself, and vanish like
phantoms whenever they discern a white man in the distance.
The cooking department being delayed by the ascent, we got no breakfast
to-day until one o'clock, unless a drink of milk and a biscuit on
arrival could be called by courtesy a breakfast.
AUGUST 9. - Descended from Lamieroo through a precipitous pass
for about three kos and a half, to Kulchee, a tidy little village
of fifteen huts, situated in an oasis of apricot and walnut-trees,
the first we had encountered since leaving Cashmere.
The people here seemed particularly simple and happy among their waving
corn-fields and wild fruit-trees, and they were most anxious to supply
us with apricots and milk, and whatever they could produce. The Gopa,
or head-man of the village, could speak a little Hindostanee, besides
being able to read and write his own language in two characters, and
as he seemed unusually sharp and intelligent, I was very glad to have
a chat with him while waiting for the commissariat to come up. The
character most common on the inscribed stones, and one of those now in
actual use, he told me was Romeeque; the other, the square character
on the stones, is obsolete, and is called Lantza;[21] while a third
character, which was the one he was most conversant with, but which
did not appear upon any of the stones, he called Tyeeque.
His explanation of the stones was, that at the last day a certain
recording angel, whom he called Khurjidal, would pass through the
land, and inspecting these mounds of inscribed stones, would write
down the names of all those who had contributed to the heap. What the
inscription was he seemed unable clearly to explain, but believed it to
refer in some manner to the Supreme Being. Whatever it was, all those
who had contributed their share towards its dissemination, by adding
stones to the mounds, were certain of future rewards, while those
who had omitted to do so were as equally certain of punishment.[22]
This explanation of the difficulty caused me some qualms of conscience
on account of the future prospects of the unfortunate writer whose
particular stone I had appropriated; but for fear the Gopa himself
might be the sufferer, I thought it better not to confide my emotions
to him, but to leave the case in the hands of Khurjidal.
Regarding the state of the people here, he told me that each house
paid a tax of seven rupees per annum to the Maharajah. This, for
the entire village, would only give 105 rupees per annum towards the
enrichment of the Treasury.
The Lamas, who have no ground of their own, appear to be a further
burden on the population. They are supplied gratuitously with food,
and appear to be somewhat similar to the Hindoo Fukeer, devoting
themselves to religion and remaining unmarried. They, however, are
not so violent in their opinions, and are more conversable, to say
nothing of being decidedly cleaner.
We breakfasted under the spreading walnuts, among an audience composed
of the entire village, who seemed much edified and amused by our
novel manners and customs. Some of our English possessions took their
fancy immensely. A cut-glass lantern and the label of a bottle of
cherry-brandy in particular, seemed to them the very essence of the
rare and curious, and they seemed never tired of admiring them. After
breakfast we again took the road, and marched three kos to another
little wooded settlement, called Nurila, situated, like Kulchee,
upon the Indus, or, as it is here called, the Attock. The noisy,
dirty torrent, as it here appears, however, gives little promise of
becoming, as it does in after life, one of the largest of the stately
Indian rivers.
AUGUST 10. - From Nurila we travelled along the Indus bank to Suspul,
a distance of seven kos or thereabouts, stopping for breakfast at
a village whose entire population consisted of one woman! The river
being shut in by high and rocky mountains, our path took several most
abrupt turns and startling ascents and descents in its meanderings, and
proved altogether the worst for coolies to travel that we had as yet
encountered.
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