1842. J to Shipke, in Chinese Tartary. 367 



are generally large, and the houses spacious and even elegant ; they are 

 built of stone and wood, and either slated or flat roofed, the last is 

 most common. The temples of the Deotas (deities) are magnificent, 

 and adorned with a profusion of ornaments. There are two or three in 

 almost every village, and sundry miraculous feats are ascribed to the 

 gods to whom they are dedicated, scarcely one of whom but has the 

 credit of having removed some mountain or vast rock for the purpose of 

 rendering the roads passable, or of some other like achievement. 



The level spaces of land in Koonawur are few, the crops are extreme- 

 ly poor, and a want of grain pervades the whole country. In time of 

 scarcity, small pears and horse chesnuts, after being steeped in water to 

 take away their bitterness, are dried and ground into flour. There are, 

 however, no marks of poverty, and the natives subsist by exchanging 

 raisins and wool for grain ; they have little else to do but look after 

 their vineyards, and attend to their flocks, which in summer are sent to 

 pasturage at some distance from the villages. Bears are very numerous, 

 and commit great ravages ; in the grape season, during the whole night, 

 several people from each village together with their dogs, are employed 

 in driving them off. 



The dogs are of a large ferocious breed, covered with wool and ex- 

 tremely adverse to strangers, whom they often bite and tear in a most 

 shocking manner; they are commonly chained during the day, other- 

 wise it would be dangerous to approach a village. The winter is rigor- 

 ous, and for three months there is no moving out of the villages owing 

 to the quantity of snow; during this season the inhabitants employ 

 themselves in weaving blankets. They early begin to collect their 

 winter stock of fuel and food for their cattle, which latter consists 

 chiefly of the leaves of trees, and they pile it upon the tops of their houses. 



The Koonawur language, of which we made a collection of nearly 

 1,000 words, differs much from the Hindee, most of the substantives 

 ending in — ing and ung, and the verbs in — mig and nig* 



3rd October. — The thermometer was fifteen degrees below the 

 freezing point and the cold intolerable, we therefore waited till two 

 hours after sunrise, and then proceeded to the village of Brooang, dis- 

 tant eight and a half miles ; the road lay over a thick snow bed for the 



* This vocabulary has fortunately been preserved, and will shortly appear.— Ed. 



