1849.] excursion from Darjiling to Tongld. 445 



unearthly sounds. Having put away those instruments, incense was 

 brought, of charcoal with juniper sprigs. This was muffled about, and 

 put through many evolutions, and finally, with the water, thrown out of 

 the window, when to our great relief the morning service was concluded, 

 for the noises were quite intolerable. 



After breakfast the Lama came to visit us, bringing rice, a few vegeta- 

 bles, and a large basket of fermented Murwa ; the latter is invariably 

 given to the traveller, either in the state of the fermented grain, or 

 more commonly in a bamboo jug filled right up with warm water and 

 grain ; the fluid sucked through a reed is a refreshing drink. 



A species of Ptris at Simonbong (which is very common elsewhere 

 in Sikkim,) attains a height of 14 feet, as great as I ever remember 

 having seen itself or congeners in New Zealand. 



Leaving Simonbong, we descended to the little Rungeet, and crossed 

 it lower down than before, thus avoiding some troublesome spurs ; the 

 heat of the valleys is very great, 80° at noon, and of the stream 69° ; the 

 latter an agreeable temperature for the coolies, who plunged teeming 

 with perspiration into the water, catching fish with their hands. 



We reached Darjiling late in the evening, and again drenched with 

 rain, our people, Hindus and Lepchas, imprudently tarried for the night 

 in the valleys below. Owing probably as much to the great exposure 

 they had lately gone through and the sudden transition from a mean 

 temperature of 50° in a bracing wind, to a hot close jungly valley at 75°, 

 no less than seven were laid up with fever and ague. 



Few excursions from Darjiling can, for their length, give a better 

 idea of the general features and rich luxuriance of the Sikkim sub- 

 Himalaya than one to Tonglo. I was amply rewarded, and my ever 

 cheerful and active companion, pronounced himself so too, though we 

 both had fully expected better weather, and some, however transient or 

 confined, a prospect. It is always interesting to roam with an aboriginal, 

 and especially a mountain people, though their thinly inhabited valleys 

 over these grand mountains, and to dwell alone with them in these 

 forests, however gloomy and forbidding. No thinking man can do so 

 without learning much, though slender be the resources at his com- 

 mand for communion. A more interesting and attractive companion 

 in this respect than the Lepcha, I never lived with ; cheerful, kind and 

 patient with a master he is attached to : rude but not savage, ignorant 



3 m 2 



