May, 1848. LAMA WORSHIP. RETURN TO DORJILING. 175 



a few vegetables, and a large bamboo-work bowl, thickly 

 varnished with india-rubber, and waterproof, containing 

 half-fermented millet. This mixture, called Murwa, is 

 invariably offered to the traveller, either in the state of 

 fermented grain, or more commonly in a bamboo jug, filled 

 quite up with warm water ; when the fluid, sucked through 

 a reed, affords a refreshing drink. He gratefully accepted 

 a few rupees and trifles which we had to spare. 



Leaving Simonbong, we descended to the Little Run- 

 geet, where the heat of the valley was very great ; 80° at 

 noon, and that of the stream 69° ; the latter was an agreeable 

 temperature for the coolies, who plunged, teeming with 

 perspiration, into the water, catching fish with their hands. 

 We reached Dorjiling late in the evening, again drenched 

 with rain ; our people, Hindoo and Lepcha, imprudently 

 remaining for the night in the valley. Owing probably as 

 much to the great exposure they had lately gone through, 

 as to the sudden transition from a mean temperature of 50° 

 in a bracing wind, to a hot close jungly valley at 75°, no 

 less than seven were laid up with fever and ague. 



Few excursions can afford a better idea of the general 

 features and rich luxuriance of the Sikkim Himalaya than 

 that to Tonglo. It is always interesting to roam with an 

 aboriginal, and especially a mountain people, through 

 their thinly inhabited valleys, over their grand mountains, 

 and to dwell alone with them in their gloomy and for- 

 bidding forests, and no thinking man can do so without 

 learning much, however slender be the means at his 

 command for communion. A more interesting and at- 

 tractive companion than the Lepcha I never lived with : 

 cheerful, kind, and patient with a master to whom he is 

 attached ; rude but not savage, ignorant and yet intelligent ; 

 with the simple resource of a plain knife he makes his 



