1844.] and on Gerard's Account of Kitndwar. 207 



and their language, and I now think them by far the finest race of 

 people in the hills, and much superior to the inhabitants of the plains 

 of India. — Gerard, p. 102. 



Cheating, lying, and thieving are unknown; they have the nicest 

 notions of honesty of any people in the world. — Gerard, p. 106, see 

 also p. 108. 



That Captain Gerard was not himself robbed, and that his good 

 faith was trusted is not surprising; he was an officer of known rank 

 and position ; he was accompanied by agents on the part of the Raja, 

 and a courteous and wealthy stranger is usually welcome among a 

 secluded agricultural people, but had he made more careful inquiries 

 than he seems to have done, he would have found that the Kunawarees 

 can lie, cheat, steal, and commit murder. During the last 15 or 18 

 years, two men of K una war (of proscribed races indeed, lohars and 

 chumars,) have been hanged, and Kunawarees Proper are almost 

 monthly punished for different crimes by the loss of a hand, or in a 

 less severe manner. Similar remarks apply to the Bhotees. A Bhotee 

 boy very dexterously carried off a powder flask of mine, and half of my 

 servants as well as a more respectable man, the Lahore Vakeel with 

 me, had a mixed metal palmed off upon them as pure gold by vari- 

 ous Bhotees. In this metal there was some gold, which was obtained 

 by stealing the books in monasteries and temples, and then burning 

 them for the sake of the gold leaf used in "illuminating" the margins, 

 &c. — See also Captain Hutlon's Tour, III, 2. — Jour. As. Soc. 



The Bhotees and Kunawarees have some of the usual virtues of 

 other secluded races, but their evil passions are latent, and only want 

 development. The Bhotees are I think a people without the spirits 

 of men, and like other cowards they are cruel. Still I don't think 

 them beyond redemption, and if their country continues distracted, 

 their energies may be roused. Of the Kunawarees I have a higher 

 opinion. They have some pride of race, due perhaps to their Indian 

 origin, and they have also some intelligence and enterprize, which 

 have latterly been turned towards trade, and a few men in Upper 

 Kunawar are possessed of some wealth. 



This trade received a considerable impulse on the emigration of 

 many thousand Cashmere weavers to the plains about 1818 and 1820, 

 and by the late increasing demand in the plains for the charas of 



