492 Report of an Expedition into the Mishmee Hills. [No, 163. 



paid to her parents for her from the man who has taken her away, 

 which if he gives, the affair is generally ended, as they never take back 

 a woman who has misbehaved in this way ; but should the man refuse, 

 or be unable to pay the demand, the man who has lost his wife, lies in 

 wait to slay the seducer, and if successful, it then becomes the duty of his 

 relatives to avenge his death. 



Agriculture appears to be conducted in the most rude and simple 

 manner, and the use of the plough is unknown. When the time of sow- 

 ing approaches, the surface of the ground is merely scratched with a 

 small kind of hoe, which penetrates but a few inches into the earth ; and 

 domestic animals, with the exception of pigs and fowls, are not reared. 



Slavery does not exist to any very great extent amongst them, and 

 is chiefly confined to such individuals as they are enabled to purchase 

 from other tribes, although some few instances of persons being sold 

 of their own tribe amongst themselves are to be met with. It is, how- 

 ever, carried to a far greater extent by the people on the other side of the 

 snowy range, and I am given to understand that whole villages of As- 

 samese are in great numbers in the Lama country. 



Geography. — The geographical features of this part of the Himalayah 

 range, do not in any very essential particulars differ from those of other 

 mountainous countries: in every direction it is intersected by small 

 streams, which either fall into the Burhampooter or the larger tributaries 

 to this river, the Tiding, Dillee or Doo. The height of the mountains 

 is somewhat less than those more to the west, and with the exception 

 of the snowy range itself, no mountains on the side of Assam are 

 covered with perpetual snow, although during the winter months the 

 peaks of all of them become more or less covered ; but even at these 

 heights the fir, which is usually indigenous to mountain tracks, does not 

 exist, being entirely confined to the Lama country, and the part of 

 these hills marked in the map as the Myjoo country. 



Geology. — As the formation of these mountains is entirely confined to 

 primitive description of rocks, it does not perhaps afford so fruitful 

 a field of investigation into the science as may be found in other parts 

 of the world. It nevertheless must possess some interest to the geologist, 

 as almost every variety of these rocks is to be met with in the greatest 

 profusion ; a considerable part of the first range passed over by myself is 

 composed of dolomite or gypsum, in which also is to be found a great 



