384 



Note on the Lepchas of Sikkim. 



[No. 100. 



I! 



II 



coral and coloured bead necklaces, form their entire wardrobe. 

 They are the domestic and farm drudges of the men, performing 

 all out- and in-door work along with their husbands, and much 

 besides. It is not unusual to meet a stout and active man bow 

 in hand, sauntering along the road followed by his wife and 

 sisters heavily loaded with grain or merchandise. It is the 

 delight of a Lepcha to be idle, he abhors the labour of practis- 

 ing any craft, but he expects that while he is amused and 

 unemployed, the female part of the household shall be busily 

 engaged in the field, or in looking after the pigs and poultry. 



Marriages among the Lepchas are not contracted in child- 

 hood, as among the Hindoos, nor do the men generally marry 

 young. This arises mainly from the difficulty of procur- 

 ing means of paying the parents of the bride the expected 

 douceur on giving the suitor his daughter to wife; this sum 

 varies from 40 rupees to 400, or 500, according to the rank of 

 the parties. It is not customary to allow the bride to leave 

 her parents* home for that of her husband until the sum 

 agreed on has been paid in full ; hence, as the consummation 

 of the marriage is permitted while the female is still under 

 her father's roof, it is by no means uncommon to find the 

 husband the temporary bondsman of his father-in-law, who 

 exacts, Jewish fashion, labour from his son, in lieu of money, 

 until he shall have fairly won his bride. 



The women are not strictly bound to chastity previous 

 to marriage, although any injury to the matrimonial bed is 

 punished by beating and divorcement. Children born out of 

 wedlock belong to the mother. 



The Lepchas intermarry with the Limboos and Bhotiahs, 

 and the offspring of such unions become members of the 

 father's tribe, without any disqualification whatever. 



The Lepchas, like true Buddhists, bury their dead, although 

 the Murmis, a Buddhist tribe and inhabiting the same coun- 

 try, burn their corpses first, and afterwards bury the ashes. 

 The presence of death in a hamlet is always regarded with 

 temporary horror, and the house he has visited is almost always 

 forsaken by the surviving inmates ; fevers and small-pox are 

 considered alike contagious and greatly dreaded. On the appear- 



