April, 1848. MOORMIS. MAGMAS. 139 



on good authority, that they had once a written language, 

 now lost ; and that it was compounded from many others 

 by a sage of antiquity. The same authority stated that their 

 Lepcha name " Chung "is a corruption of that of their 

 place of residence ; possibly the " Tsang " province of Tibet. 



The Moormis are the only other native tribe remaining 

 in any numbers in Sikkim, except the Tibetans of the loftier 

 mountains (whom I shall mention at a future period), and 

 the Mechis of the pestilential Terai, the forests of which 

 they never leave. The Moormis are a scattered people, 

 respecting whom I have no information, except from the 

 authority quoted above. They are of Tibetan origin, and 

 called " Nishung," from being composed of two branches, 

 respectively from the districts of Nimo and Shung, both 

 on the road between Sikkim and Lhassa. They are now 

 most frequent in central and eastern Nepal, and are a 

 pastoral and agricultural people, inhabiting elevations of 

 4000 to 6000 feet, and living in stone houses, thatched 

 with grass. They are a large, powerful, and active race, 

 grave, very plain in features, with little hair on the face. 

 Both their language and religion are purely Tibetan. 



The Magras, a tribe now confined to Nepal west of the 

 Arun, are aborigines of Sikkim, whence they were driven 

 by the Lepchas westward into the country of the Limboos, 

 and by these latter further west still. They are said to have 

 been savages, and not of Tibetan origin, and are now con- 

 verted to Hindooism. A somewhat mythical account of a 

 wild people still inhabiting the Sikkim mountains, will be 

 alluded to elsewhere. 



It is curious to observe that these mountains do not 

 appear to have afforded refuge to the Tamulian * aborigines 



* The Tamuliaus are the Coles, Dangas, &c., of the mountains of Central India 

 and the peninsula, who retired to mountain fastnesses, on the invasion of their 



