370 SIKKIM HIMALAYA. Chap. XVI. 



I was then conducted to a house, where I found salted 

 and buttered tea and Murwa beer smoking in hospitable 

 preparation. As usual, the house was of wood, and the 

 inhabited apartments above the low basement story were 

 approached by an outside ladder, like a Swiss cottage : 

 within were two rooms floored with earth ; the inner was 

 small, and opened on a verandah that faced Kinchinjunga, 

 whence the keen wind whistled through the apartment. 



The head Lama, my jolly fat friend of the 20th of 

 December, came to breakfast with me, followed by several 

 children, nephews and nieces he said ; but they were 

 uncommonly like him for such a distant relationship, and 

 he seemed extremely fond of them, and much pleased when 

 I stuffed them with sugar. 



Changachelling hill is remarkable for having on its sum- 

 mit an immense tabular mass of chlorite slate, resting 

 apparently horizontally on variously inclined rocks of the 

 same : it is quite flat-topped, ten to twelve yards each way, 

 and the sides are squared by art ; the country people attri- 

 bute its presence here to a miracle. 



The view of the Kinchin range from this spot being one 

 of the finest in Sikkim, and the place itself being visible 

 from Dorjiling, I took a very careful series of bearings, 

 which, with those obtained at Pemiongchi, were of the 

 utmost use in improving my map, which was gradually 

 progressing. To my disappointment I found that neither 

 priest nor people knew the name of a single snowy moun- 

 tain. I also asked in vain for some interpretation of the 

 lines I have quoted at p. 365 ; they said they were Lepcha 

 worship, and that they only used them for the gratification of 

 the people, on the day of the great festival of Kinchinjunga. 



Hence I descended to the Kulhait river, on my route 

 back to Dorjiling, visiting my very hospitable tippling friend, 



