Institutions of the Inhabitants of Boutan. 5^^ 



are tlie common Paria sort, with others of a different kind from Thibet. 

 These last are of a large size, with a sharp snout and a fox-like head, long 

 shagged hair, of a strong make, ugly, and extremely fierce. They are al- 

 ways kept chained, and serve as guards to the villages and orchards. In 

 some of the woods we saw monkeys of an extraordinary size, the face 

 black, and surrounded with white busliy hair ; the hair on the body grey. 

 In the woods to the northward are said to be bears, and the cheela, or hunting 

 leopard. In Boutan are plenty of fowls, but neither ducks, geese, nor 

 turkeys, wild or tame : it is too cold a climate for the latter, and the others 

 would no where find water sufficiently placid to swim in. Pigeons both 

 wild and tame ; sparrows, kites, and crows from India, The latter how- 

 ever speak a different language from their low country relations, and in 

 some of their notes might be mistaken for ducks. A bird found in the 

 greatest plenty is the hoppoo, a native also of India, but no where seen so 

 numerous as here. The size rather smaller than a pigeon ; a long beak ; 

 the plumage beautifully variegated with brown, white, and black, and a high 

 tuft of feathers on the head, which is expanded and elevated, or closed and 

 depressed at pleasure. The cuckoo was heard no more after the setting in 

 of the rains, but he returns at the same season and stays as long as he does 

 in England. There are also wag-tails and tom-tits, and I once saw a hum- 

 ming bird of a very beautiful plumage, red, blue, and yellow. The gnats 

 which tormented us at Choka, as well as the luckes, are, I believe, met with 

 in no other country. The bite of the former is much more tormenting than 

 that of any other species of mosquito I ever heard of; the pain lasts at 

 least a week, and the marks much longer : they were visible for a month 

 after our arrival at Tacissudon. The Bouteas are plentifully stocked with 

 rats, fleas, bugs, and mosquitos, but I believe snakes and the like venomous 

 reptiles are no where seen, except in the southern parts bordering on 

 Bengal. 



We staid at Tacissudon upwards of three months, and remained all the 

 time lodged in the house we were shewn to on our arrival. The daily 

 supply for our table was a kid, three fowls, and about a dozen eggs, which 

 was neither varied, increased, nor diminished, except once or twice when 

 the Rajah sent some of the dried mutton from Thibet, We had occasionally 

 good butter, and after a while were brought to disregard the hairs and dirt 

 with which it was abundantly mixed. The servants, except two or three 

 of the upper class, were not so well off: their portion was two dried fish, a 



