1840.] Note on the Lepchas of Sikkim. 383 



is churned up in a chunga with butter and salt; milk is never 

 taken with tea. 



Their cooking is careless, coarse, and not cleanly. Rice 

 is generally boiled, when travelling, in pieces of the large 

 bamboo, at home in coarse iron pots. Vegetables are always 

 boiled, m oil, when the latter is procurable, and spiced with capsi- 

 cum and ginger, of which these hills possess very fine kinds. 

 Salt is not a commonly used condiment, the chief source of 

 supply until lately being Thibet, whence rock salt is brought 

 on men's backs ; the easier communication with the plains 

 of Bengal by the new Dorjeling road admits of the importation 

 of this article at a cheaper rate, and sea salt is rapidly taking 

 the place of the other. 



The Lepcha dress is simple, handsome, and graceful. It 

 consists of a robe of striped red and white cotton cloth 

 crossed over the breast and shoulders, and descending to the 

 calf of the leg, leaving the arms bare ; a loose jacket of red 

 cotton cloth is worn over the robe by those who can afford 

 it, and both are bound round the waist by a red girdle ; some 

 strings of coloured beads round the neck, silver and coral 

 earrings, a bamboo bow and quiver of iron-pointed arrows, and 

 a long knife, complete the dress of the men. The knife, 

 called Ban by the Lepchas, and Chipsa by the Bhotiahs, is 

 constantly worn by the males of all ages and ranks; it hangs 

 on the right side, suspended from the left shoulder, and is used 

 for all purposes. With the Ban the Lepcha clears a space 

 in the forest for his house and cultivation ; it is the only tool 

 used by him in building; with it he skins the animals who fall 

 a prey to his snares and arrows, it is his sword in battle, his 

 table knife, his hoe, spade, and nail parer. Without the 

 Ban he is helpless to move in the jungles ; with it, he is a man 

 of all work ; no wonder then that the expertness with which it 

 is used by the boys of a few years old even, should be the 

 astonishment of strangers. 



The women are less handsomely dressed than the men ; 

 a piece of plain unbleached cotton cloth, or the cloth of the 

 castor oil insect, rolled round to form a sort of petticoat, 

 with a loose bedgown of the same, and a profusion of mock 



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