284 Capt. Pemberton's Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. [April, 



his escape, and very grateful to us for our good offices. Many of the 

 better orders keep Tartar dogs : these are large, shaggy, powerful beasts, 

 apparently very fierce, and the most incessant barkers I ever met 

 with; they are always kept chained up. At a white face they appear 

 perfectly furious, but perhaps they rely on the chain. Turner says they 

 are not so bad if one is armed with a bludgeon. Mr. Blake found 

 that in almost every instance their eyes were of different colours. 



Of domestic birds, the common fowl is the only one : in many places 

 it reaches considerable perfection ; about the capital the breed is as bad 

 as can be imagined. They all appear to be low-bred, and the old 

 birds, especially the cocks, are generally lame from corns. Their crows 

 are most curious, and very unlike those of any other variety I know 

 of; it is of inordinate length, and when once commenced can not be 

 stopped, for fright only changes it to a hasty gobble. The bird, while 

 he is undergoing the process, walks along with neck and tail at full 

 stretch, and with his beak wide open, totally absorbed in the business. 

 No care is taken of the fowls, or at most, they are allowed to stand 

 round when rice is cleared or pounded. 



They have no ducks or geese, a want they share with all the moun- 

 tainous tribes I have seen. A peacock is occasionally to be seen in 

 the castles, and at Tongsa we saw one associated with a tame jacana. 

 Fine Arts. — The ordinary form of houses in Bootan is that of a rather 

 narrow oblong, disproportionately high, building : the better order are 

 rather irregular in shape. They are built either of slabs of stone, 

 generally unhewn, or of mud well beaten down ; the walls in all cases 

 are of considerable thickness, and almost universally slope inwards. 

 They are for oriental houses well provided with windows, and are 

 further furnished with small verandahs, of which the Booteas seem 

 very fond. There is little or no ornamental work about them, with the 

 exception of those infested by priests, in which there is generally 

 a rather ornamental verandah. The roofs throughout the interior are of 

 bad construction ; they are formed of loose shingles, merely retained 

 in their places by heavy stones placed on the top of each ; this 

 necessarily requires a very small slope, but even small as it is, the 

 whole roof occasionally slips off. In some few places where bamboos 

 are available the roofs are formed by bamboo mats, placed in several 

 layers, and secured either by stones or rattans. In the better order 

 of houses the great perviousness of the roof is compensated for by the 

 imperviousness of the ceiling of the uppermost st6ry, which is well 

 laid down with mud; houses situated near the plains, where proper 

 grasses are obtainable are thatched : (the most common grass is the 

 Oollookher, Saccharum cylindricwri), such roofs from their slope, 



