612 Note on the Limboos, and other Hill Tribes. [No. 102. 



The Moormis are Buddhists, and follow the Bhotia and Lepcha 

 Lamas, as well as those of their own tribe. It is necessary for the 

 latter, however, to have been educated at Lhassa, or at some other 

 Thibetan College, ere they gain much respect among their own tribe. 

 The Moormi priests are not restricted to celibacy. The language of the 

 Moormis is, I believe, a dialect of the Thibetan, although the Bhotiahs 

 and Moormis cannot converse in it. The only written language known 

 to the Moormis is that of Thibet, in which their Lamas read the sacred 

 scriptures of Buddhism ; they bury the dead on the mountain tops, 

 raising tombs of earth and stone over the graves, and occasionally 

 engrave the name of the deceased in the Thibetan characters on slabs 

 of stone laid into the erection. They are decidedly a Mongolian tribe, 

 and certainly the least handsome of all the mountaineers of this part 

 of the Himalaya. They are, however, a very powerful and active people. 

 Their standard of stature is taller than that of the Lepchas and 

 Limboos. They are not so cheerful as the Lepchas, having a good deal 

 of the gravity of the Bhotiahs, but they are good tempered, and alto- 

 gether free from prejudice to strangers. Indeed this is a marked 

 feature in the character of all the people of these mountains, all jealousy 

 and prejudice in this respect, being confined to the rulers. The Moormis 

 are not admitted into the ranks of the Nipal army, being considered 

 an unmilitary people ; as ammunition carriers, klassies, and gun-lascars, 

 however, they are in request. They do not seem averse to take up 

 arms, as a few have enlisted into our service at Darjeeling, but their 

 favourite pursuits are grazing and agriculture. In one respect the 

 Moormis are a very interesting people to those who desire the pros- 

 perity of Darjeeling, and to see its waste land cleared and inhabited ; 

 their custom of living and cultivating at elevations nearly as great as 

 this place itself, point them out, above all others, as the most useful 

 settlers. The Lepchas do not object to temporary sojourns at elevations 

 equal to Darjeeling, but they never establish themselves permanently 

 at such. The Moormis and Gurungs prefer elevations of 6000 feet to 

 any others, the Limboos and Lepchas, those from 4000 to 2000 feet; 

 while the Haioos choose the lowest spots of the vallies beyond the 

 nfluence of malaria, and even brave this with impunity, derived from 

 habit. For the malarious Morung, which skirts our mountains towards 

 the plains, the Meches and Dimals are the local people we have to look 



