1844.] and on Gerard's Account of Kundwar. 215 



Indeed a family of the better sort in Kunawar will only kill a sheep 

 or a goat once in a month. In the adjoining Bhotee districts, the 

 people may do so once in 18 or 20 days, their flocks being larger and 

 more easily fed. Tea is not regularly drunk by more than ten 

 families in all Kunawar; some drink it occasionally, some rarely, and 

 some perhaps never. Chong is drunk by the poor people on par- 

 ticular occasions only • but there are dissipated people every where, 

 and some men may take a dram every morning. Grain is too valu- 

 able to admit of its consumption in the manufacture of spirits. 



I think that the poorer people in Upper Kunawar and in Tibet, live 

 chiefly on the meal of parched grain mixed with water. They don't 

 often or regularly bake cakes, although those in better circumstances 

 may frequently do so. In times of scarcity, they eat chestnuts in 

 Lower Kunawar, and in Upper Kunawar and the adjoining districts, 

 they use apricot kernels ; that is, if they have them, for apricots do not 

 bear at a greater elevation than 10,500 feet. 



Drink of the Kunawar ees — Sore Eyes. — For although the Kuna- 

 warees can get nothing but snow for some months in the year, they 

 are not so subject to goitre as the people that live in the damp 

 grounds. In winter, the eyes are frequently inflamed by the reflection 

 of the snow, and the people travelling at this time, protect them with 

 large leaves, generally of the rhubarb. — Gerard, p. 82. 



It may be safely said, that the Kunawarees are never reduced to 

 drink snow water for more than a few days in a year, and a few small 

 villages only are necessitated to do that ; every village is near a stream 

 or spring, and both streams and springs flow in winter, notwithstand- 

 ing snow and frost. 



The rhubarb is not green in winter, and if it had leaves at that season, 

 they could not easily be got at ; being buried at great heights under 

 snow. Hair spectacles, juniper twigs, &c. are used to protect the eyes. 



Customs as to Food.— The present did not include some hares, for 

 no other reason as far as I could learn, than that the length of their 

 ears assimilated them to asses. — Moorcroft, I, 424-5. 



The Bhotees do not eat hares, nor birds of any kind, nor fish. To- 

 wards our borders, however, they are somewhat lax ; but towards 

 Rohtak, our hill traders are good humouredly reviled, when they eat 

 the fish of the lakes of that neighbourhood. 



