Dec. 1848. THE KAYSING MEND0NG. 287 



clown the hill for several hundred yards, and had a large 

 chait at each end, with several smaller ones at intervals. 

 Throughout its length were innumerable inscriptions of 

 " Om Mani Padmi om," with well carved figures of Boodh 

 in his many incarnations, besides Lamas, &c. At the 

 lower end was a great flat area, on which are burnt the 

 bodies of Sikkim people of consequence i the poorer people 

 are buried, the richer burned, and their ashes scattered or 

 interred, but not in graves proper, of which there are none. 

 Nor are there any signs of Lepcha interment throughout 

 Sikkim ; though chaits are erected to the memory of the 

 departed, they have no necessary connection with the 

 remains, and generally none at all. Corpses in Sikkim 

 are never cut to pieces and thrown into lakes, or exposed 

 on hills for the kites and crows to devour, as is the case 

 in Tibet. 



We passed some curious masses of crumpled chlorite 

 slate, presenting deep canals or furrows, along which 

 a demon once drained all the water from the Pemiongchi 

 spur, to the great annoyance of the villagers : the Lamas, 

 however, on choosing this as a site for their temples, easily 

 confounded the machinations of the evil spirit, who, in the 

 eyes of the simple Lepchas, was answerable for all the 

 mischief. 



I crossed the Great Rungeet at 1840 feet above the 

 sea, where its bed was twenty yards in width ; a rude 

 bridge, composed of two culms of bamboo and a hand- 

 rail, conducted me to the other side, where we camped 

 (on the east bank) in a thick tropical jungle. In the evening 



faces are covered with inscribed slates, of which there are upwards of 700, and 

 the inscriptions, chiefly " Om Mani," &c, are in both the Uchen and Lencha 

 Ranja characters of Tibet. A tall stone, nine feet high, covered also with 

 inscriptions, terminates it at the lower end. 



