58 Captain Blame's Metnoir on Sirmor. 



Polyandry, or the custom of one woman having two or more husbands 

 (relations), obtains among them. It frequently happens that two brothers 

 succeed conjointly to an estate. They cohabit witli one wife, and the 

 integrity of the property is thus preserved. 



Topography. 



With the exception of the Keardah Dim, this country is entirely moun- 

 tainous : for the narrow levels, which partially pervade the banks of the 

 Giri, the Taiis, and the Jumna, can scarcely be accounted valleys. The 

 mountains lie in ranges, much indented, and often crowned with peaks, 

 greatly higher than their general level. To give a clear and comprehensive 

 idea of these ranges, they may be classed as primary, and secondary : the 

 secondary being, as it were, the counterforts, or buttresses, to the first. 

 Carrying on the analogy, these counterforts may be considered as minor 

 ranges, which are in like manner buttressed by others, projecting from 

 them ; and these again by others, and so on, with invariable uniformity. 



One continuous range extends from the mountain, which divides the 

 sources of the Setkj and Taiis, through Biser, to mount Cupar, at the head 

 of the Giri. It there forms two branches : one stretching irregularly be- 

 tween tiiese two rivers, passes through Cmiliarsia, by the village of T'heug 

 and the peak of Rdjgliar, whence it spreads towards the plain, in many 

 diverging ranges, which, with their counterforts, fill up the space between 

 the Jumna, at Badshah Mahl, and the Setkj at Rupcr. The other con- 

 nects with Chur, and continuing by the forts of Hcripiir and Chandpur, 

 divides the streams, which fall into the Ta7is, from those which feed the 

 Giri. The peak, called Ch'A.r, has an elevation, above the plain, of 10,588 

 feet ; and though sixty miles from the nearest summit of the snowy chain, 

 is higher than any intervening point. It is the centre, from which the 

 several langes radiate, that lie between the Tans and the Girt. 



Between the rivers Tans and Jumna, a grand central range is to be 

 traced from the snowy mountains, projecting its huge buttresses, on either 

 side, with little uniformity. At the head of the Undo, this elevated ridge 

 divides, and forms the basin of the stream, running, by Kalsi, into the 

 Jumna. The most elevated land of this tract is from Kardm peak, south 

 to Debun, and crosswise from Ldkandi to Bogrii. 



Two snowy peaks are conspicuous, one of which, 17>57'li feet high, is 



