268 C'apt. Pemberton's Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. [April, 



said to follow up the discharge by the piece by the discharge of a 

 stone. It is likewise said that few venture to take aim except with 

 the stone ; they generally attach the gun to a tree, and without point- 

 ing it consider that they have performed a dangerous feat by causing 

 its discharge. All the musketeers I saw, even when there was 

 no ball in the gun, certainly averted their faces very studiously when 

 the due fizzing of the powder warned them that the explosion would 

 soon come on. 



The most common weapon next the dha is the bow : this we only 

 saw practised at Dewangiri, and the result was not alarming. The 

 bows are longer than ordinary, at least so they appeared to my inex- 

 perienced eyes. It must be remembered that they do not, as in 

 some more civilised places, fire at marks the size of an ordinary house. 

 The mark which we saw was a small battledoor-shaped piece of 

 wood, the distance was 150 yards, and the situation of the mark was 

 pointed out by branches of trees ; scarcely an arrow alighted with- 

 in reasonable distance, yet the mark bore several marks, which we 

 knew were made for the occasion. Each archer was very noisy in ap- 

 plauding his own skill, and challenging the others to equal it. 



The dress of the women likewise consists of a loose garment, and is 

 very similar to that worn by Hill tribes to the eastward of Assam. 

 They have very few ornaments : the chief ones consist of a plate of 

 silver fastened round the head, and crossing the upper part of the fore- 

 head, wire ear-rings of large dimensions, and peculiar rings fastened to 

 a straight silver wire and worn projecting beyond the shoulder. They 

 appear to be fond of flowers, and frequently decorate themselves with 

 garlands, particularly of the scarlet rhododendron and the weeping 

 willow. 



The diet of the lower orders is very, very poor ; they appear to live 

 entirely on grain of an inferior nature, or in the wheat districts on 

 coarse, abominably dirty chowpatties. There can be little doubt but 

 that in many places they are not unfrequently much pinched by 

 want. 



The chiefs and their followers, and the inmates generally of the 

 castles, live chiefly on rice brought from the plains ; they likewise con- 

 sume much dried fish, and very likely not a little dried meat, which 

 they prepare by means of fire and smoke. They are as strict in their 

 ideas of not eating flesh of living animals as the Burmese are ; and 

 they are beyond doubt very fond of animal diet : the salt is I believe 

 brought from Thibet : they eat with the hand. 



Their beverages are in the first place tea, but this is I believe used 

 only by persons of some rank or property : they procure this from 



