1839.] Capt. Peniberton's Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. 285 



thickness, and projecting eaves are excellent. The generality of houses 

 have a court-yard in front surrounded by a stone or mud wall, the 

 entrance to which is, or has at one time been, furnished with a stout 

 door. Access to the first floor, (for the ground floor is invariably 

 occupied by pigs, goats, &c.,) is gained by a rude sort of stair, inter- 

 mediate between real stairs and ladders, and rather dangerous: a 

 greater degree of safety is sometimes insured by the presence of a 

 banister. Each story is divided into several apartments, which are 

 generally defective in height; no regularity in their distribution 

 appears to be ever observed ; they are not provided with chimneys, 

 and in many instances we found the smoke almost intolerable. 



The houses of the poorer orders, situated near the plains, are 

 miserable habitations, but still are better than those in common use in 

 Bengal and Assam, in as much as they are built on muchowns. 



The castles and palaces are buildings of a much superior nature; 

 indeed it is said that they are erected by Thibetans or Chinese. They 

 are of immense size, varying a good deal in form, according to the 

 nature of the ground on which they are built, and which is invariably 

 a spur or tongue of land situated between the junction of two streams. 

 If the ground be even, the form chosen seems to be parallelogram mic, 

 but if it be uneven, it has no form at all. They are, particularly in 

 the latter case, ornamented with towers and other defences, either 

 forming part of the building or detached from it. 



The national walls and roofs are preserved ; the former are of great 

 thickness, pierced in the lower part with narrow, utterly inefficient 

 loop-holes. In the interior there are one or two large court-yards. 

 The first and second stories are the chiefly inhabited ones, the ground 

 floor, however, is not so profaned as in other houses. Most of them are 

 ornamented with a raised square or oblong tower or building, in which* 

 * * take up their quarters. That of Punukka is the largest and 

 loftiest, consisting of several stories, and several roofs gradually 

 decreasing in size — an obvious imitation, except in the straightness 

 of the roofs, of the Chinese form; it is in part covered with copper, 

 as the Booteas assured us, gilt. 



All these large buildings, as well as the summer-houses attached 

 to them, the houses of recluses, or active priests, the resting houses 

 of chiefs, and religious edifices of every kind or description, are white- 

 washed, and most are ornamented with a belt of red ochre, not 

 far from the roof. The residences of the great men, and some of 

 the religious edifices, are distinguished by a folded gilt umbrella 

 stuck on the top, resembling a long narrow bell, rather than that 

 for which it is intended. 



* A blank in the M, S.— Eds, 



