They Seemed Altogether
A Peaceful, Primitive Race; But, Although Their Ground Appears In
First-Rate Order, They Themselves Are Uncultivated And Dirty In The
Extreme.
The ladies, I am sorry to say, are even rather worse in this
matter than the gentlemen.
The female costume consists generally of
robes of sheep and goat skins thrown across the shoulders; while
a long tail of twisted worsted plaits, looking like a collection
of old-fashioned bell-ropes, forms the chief decoration. This is
attached to the back hair, and hangs down quite to the heels, where it
terminates in a large tuft, with tassels and divers balls of worsted
attached to it. On a hill overhanging the village were the remains
of a mud fort, which had been pulled down by Gulab Singh in one of
his excursions to Thibet, with a view to bringing the inhabitants
to a proper sense of their position, and enforcing the payment of
his tribute.
The number of battered and deserted huts about the village is accounted
for by the erratic habits of the people, which induce them never to
stay long in one set of houses, but to flit from one side of the valley
and from one settlement to another as the fancy strikes them. That the
large increase of the flea population among such a race, however, may
have something to do with their restlessness, seems more than probable.
Except when impressed for government employ, they seldom leave the
vicinity of their villages, and one old gentleman told me he had
never been even as far as a place called Lotzum, which is only two kos
off!
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