NATURALIST IN INDIA. 87 



wherever their luckless call attracted us, until, tired and 

 hungry, we returned to the tent. 



The houses in this part of the country are generally gable- 

 roofed ; and there are numbers of little towers, which, we were 

 told, were once on a time places of defence, when the tribes 

 quarrelled about the appropriation of the mountain-streams 

 for the purpose of irrigation. A six-pounder would have 

 levelled them with the ground, yet a native informed us that 

 these diminutive fortresses had withstood many a bloody 

 siege. We passed a Paharee marriage-party, about 200 men 

 and women, dressed in the gayest and brightest attire — ^red 

 turbans, and every variety of colour in the rest of their 

 toilette. The bridegroom was not visible, but the bride, a 

 girl of about "ten years of age, was seated in a box, carried 

 on the shoulders of four men. A marriage among the hill- 

 men is always a very grand event, and costs many years' 

 savings. 



Our dogs becoming suddenly ineffective from some de- 

 rangement of their breathing, I examined their nostrils, and 

 found them filled with . large distended leeches (Hcemopsis 

 pallidum). These abound in the pools and damp grass. 



On the following morning, as we toiled up the steep 

 ascent above our previous night's encampment, it was a 

 beautiful sight to behold the hiU-sides covered with a scarlet 

 rhododendron (E. harlatum) in full blossom ; and when we 

 gained the ridge a stni grander scene burst upon our view. 

 The lights and shadows thrown across the great valleys, while 

 northward the Chor mountain, monarch of all around, stood 

 out in impressive grandeur, its gloomy sides diversified by 

 piue-forests, and towards the summit with patches of snow. 

 We gained, at noon, the village of Naira, and pitched our 

 tent close by. The natives of this district seemed to be paler 



