444 Report on the Valley of Spiti. [No. 6. 



his father's quarters, and the younger couple the best. Such are their 

 arrangements. They appear to live happily together, seldom quarrel, 

 and crimes are very uncommon. Their customs are essentially Chinese, 

 and I was always presented with a " Khatak," or white silk scarf, by 

 every head of a village. 



Mode of reckoning time. — Their mode of reckoning time is by lunar 

 months of 29 and 30 days alternately, and every three years they add 

 a month to reconcile the motions of the sun and moon. Their present 

 Samvat (Kilii) commenced on the 15th of December. 



Mode of detecting crime and oath. — When two parties are accused 

 of crime, an oath is taken in the following manner. The names of 

 each are written on paper or engraved on stone, then wrapped up in 

 flour, and either thrown into hot oil, or water, a person then plunges 

 in his hand, and the first name that comes up is considered the guilt- 

 less person. 



Petty thefts punished by fine, — Petty thefts are punished by fines. 



A person dying without an heir, the personal property goes to the 

 Lambas. 



Crimes how punished. — If a woman deserts her husband, and goes 

 to another man, the man pays the expenses that have been incurred by 

 the husband, with an occasional fine, according to circumstances. 



Bad crimes, as maiming, wounding or murder, have hitherto been 

 punished by orders from Ladak, generally by the cutting off a hand. 



Amusements. — Shooting with a bow and arrow is one of their favo- 

 rite pastimes ; the implements are of Chinese manufacture. A sort 

 of religio- dramatic performance constantly takes place, the actors are 

 Lambas, who repeat religious sentences, and are joined in a chorus 

 by the crowd ; on these occasions grain is bestowed, and every donor's 

 name registered in a book kept in the gumpah or the kiirdewarah. 



Dress. — All are clothed in woollen coarse cloth and blanket at all 

 seasons, and in winter, a goat or sheep skin cloak reaching from 

 head to near the feet, the hair inside. The women wear a sort of 

 loose wrapper with arms, extending to below the knee, bound round 

 the waist with usually a red coarse shawl of pashm ; loose trowsers 

 usually red, which are gathered close below the knee, and stuffed into 

 a pair of cloth leggings attached to a large Chinese shaped shoe, (these 

 leggings answering for stockings,) and tied round the calf of the leg 



