6s ESSAY ON ' 



live by hunting, piercing- the wild beasts with their 

 darts and arrows: ])ut they aie also so swift as to 

 run them down. They have the head and nails of 

 a dog, l>ut -their teeth are longer; and they bark 

 like dogs, having no other language : yet they un- 

 derstand the Hindu, but express tiiemselves by signs 

 and barking. They have also tails like dogs, but 

 longer, and more bushy. The Hindus call them 

 Calystrii, or Dog- faced. 



This idle story originates from their being swift- 

 paced, and running down their prey WkeGre-hoioids. 

 These Dog-faced Sylvans^ are called Swana-mu'chas, in 

 the Furanas ; in which we read also of tribes, with 

 faces like horses, parrots, &c. in these mountains. 

 But it was, however, a very appropriate hieroglyph, 

 "by which to designate these people. Thus the 

 Icthijophagi, or fish-eaters, on the coasts of Persia^ 

 are called in Sanscrit, I am told, Sir-matsyas, or fish- 

 heads, and in Persian romances, Scr-mald ; which 

 signifies the same thing. Calystrii seems to be de- 

 rived from the Sanscrit Caulcyaca-Siras, or Caideyd- 

 SiraSj with the heads of Gre-hounds. ■- 



They live upon flesh, dried in the sun : (and in 

 Tibet they thus dry whole sheep, which they place 

 upon four legs). The men never bathe : women 

 only once a month. They rub their bodies with oil. 

 (This is the practice in Tibet, and they use butter 

 instead of oil). They generally live in caves: (this 

 is the constant practice of the mountaineers, to this 

 day, in winter : in summer, they live under tents, 

 and in arbours). Their clothes are of skins, except 

 a few of the richest, who wear linen. 



Beyond the sources of the Sipa-clwra, is a tribe 

 of men, black also; but they have no evacuations. 

 They however, make a little water occasionally. 

 Their food is milk alone, which they know how to 



