1844.] and on Gerard's Account of Kunawar. 203 



Himalayas ; and as the people are not of a warlike character, nor of a 

 more ingenious turn of mind than neighbouring races, they have but 

 few resources, and are almost entirely dependent on a scanty and labo- 

 rious cultivation for their means of subsistence. It is therefore neces- 

 sary to limit the population, and this is most simply done by allowing 

 one wife only to each house or family. Necessity gives rise to the 

 law, and custom renders it more binding; but a change in the circum- 

 stances of the people, produced by whatever means, may render the 

 custom partial in its application. Thus the people of Upper Kunavvar, 

 owing to the recent demands for shawl-wool and charas, (a drug,) 

 in India, are now engaged in a rapidly extending carrying trade ; 

 they accumulate money; and can maintain themselves in comfort 

 in their villages by importing articles of food. Two or three 

 brothers may thus each become rich, and seek to found a family 

 dependent on trading enterprize, and not on agriculture, for its 

 livelihood. 



Polyandrism as I have observed it in Upper Kunawar, and in the 

 neighbouring Bhotee districts, is not exactly the same as described by 

 Moorcroft. The lands of a village are divided unequally among a 

 certain number of houses, and these are assessed in a fixed sum by 

 the state. Each house has usually one wife only, but sometimes 

 two or three. The master or father of the family, that is, the eldest 

 son or brother, retains the authority as long as he retains his faculties, 

 although his son may have been married for sometime. On the death 

 of the father, the eldest son, if arrived at manhood, succeeds to the mas- 

 tership ; but if he is a minor, the father's brother succeeds. This I should 

 say is the rule, but as the civil relations of the people are not com- 

 plicated, the right to the mastership has not been very strictly defined, 

 and nephew and uncle, so to speak, act indifferently as superior; the 

 most talented being usually put forward as the representative of the 

 family or house. 



If a woman survives her husband, she continues to live with her 

 son ; it is her right to do so, and she cannot be put away with a main- 

 tenance at his pleasure. A young brother can establish himself sepa- 

 rately if he desires to do so ; his share of the land and of the moveable 

 property, as also his proportion of the state assessment, being deter- 

 mined by a sort of jury, subject to the approval of the Chief or 



2h 



