8 Cust — Non- Aryan Lanrjimges of India. [Jatst. 



of Nepal, and its prolific literature finds its way from native printing- 

 presses of the Chinese type into that kingdom. Poor traffickers and monks 

 annually visit Kathmandu, and sell books of inferior ^pretensions, as well as 

 religious tracts. It is a language in the stage of transition from the mono- 

 syllabic to the agglutinating class, but akin to Chinese, of which empire 

 Tibet is an integral portion : the people are Buddhists, and allow of no 

 communication, even by letter, with British India, its Government or 

 people : but from India many centuries ago they borrowed their religion, 

 and the staple of their literature, which consists chiefly of religious works, 

 translations from Sanskrit. The first grammar of this language was 

 compiled by Csoma di Koros, after a long residence on the frontier, and 

 published at Calcutta in 1834, followed by a dictionary : to this succeeded 

 a grammar published in the German language, in Russia, by Schmidt, in 

 1841 ; and another in French by Foucaux at Paris in 1858 : neither of the 

 two last-mentioned scholars had visited India, and they are but followers of 

 Csoma di Koros. Parts of the New Testament have been translated into 

 Tibetan, but there is an absolute dearth in the whole of Europe of Tibetan 

 scholars, and at a late meeting of the Geographical Society of London, a 

 letter was exhibited from the Lama to a British officer, upwards of one 

 hundred years old, which, whatever may have been the case then, is totally 

 beyond the existing knowledge of the linguistic world in Europe. It is 

 understood that there are several dialects of Tibetan, and, considering the 

 vast extent and mountainous character of the great plateau, there is reason 

 to expect scores of dialects. There are four variations of the alphabet — the 

 first is in capitals : the second small letters : the third cursive : and the 

 fourth an exotic, supposed to be identical with one of the Nei^aulese alpha- 

 bets : all are derived from the Nagari. 



Betwixt Lahoul and the Nepaulese frontier a considerable extent of 

 mountainous country extends, occupied from time immemorial by a popula- 

 tion professing Hinduism, but with some suspiciously non- Aryan customs, 

 such as polyandry, speaking a dialect of Hindi, and under the rule of petty 

 Bajas, in absolute dependence on the Government of British India. In 

 one solitary tract north of the river Sutlej, and deep in the Himalaya, is 

 found to exist a population sj^eaking a non- Aryan language ; this is 

 Kunawur, a portion of the territory of the Raja of Bussahir, a small tract 

 of mountains of an enormous elevation, occupied by a population of less 

 than ten thousand, the majority of whom are Buddhists, and speak a 

 language called Koonawuri or Milchan, akin to Tibetan, a vocabulary of 

 which was compiled by Captain Herbert. There are said to be a variety of 

 dialects even in this narrow compass. The people, though simple in habits, 

 are not uncivilized in the Asiatic sense, and in the chief Buddhist temple 

 is an extensive library of Buddhist works. 



