566 The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. [June, 



The Buchanania latifolia : " Mooria" and " Piyal," the fruit " Chi- 

 ronjee," is abundant on the hills behind Kulounia ; and in the thickets 

 are Ventilago maderaspatana, with Berchemia laxa ? both called " Kala- 

 lug," but the former also known as Rukut-peeta. Mimosa rubiginosa : 

 " Ugla," Acacia csesia, "Kutrar," and an enormous climbing Acacia, 

 called " Agla" and " Awul," are also common. The stem of the last 

 attains a thickness of two and a height of 100 feet : the bark is used 

 for what Roxburgh calls the " nefarious purpose," of poisoning fish. 

 It seems to be his Acacia pennata. 



The epochs of the months, as kept here by the Peleebheet traders, 

 differ from those of the mountaineers. Thus, according to the former, 

 March 12 answers to the 10th of Chyt, while by the hill reckoning it 

 is only the 1st. The difference is said to be occasioned by the low- 

 landers employing the lunar month, calculated from the full-moon : the 

 hillmen use the solar month, calculated from one Sunkrant (or sun's 

 entrance into a sign) to another, commencing the year with Magh, 

 answering to January and February, and so on : the 9th month they 

 call "Ussouj," a corruption of xlswuyuja ; and the 11th, comprising 

 Nov. Dec. is " Mungsir," from " Mrigasirus," "the head of the 

 deer," one of the 27th Nukshutras or lunar mansions. The " Sun- 

 krants," are all more or less observed as Holydays : that of the sun in 

 Aries is illustrated by the Holee, which is kept by the Gorkhas with a 

 regular May-bush, cut and brought in with pomp and music, and deco- 

 rated with parti-coloured shreds, as used to be the case in England ; the 

 sun's entrance into Libra in Ussouj is also a great day with the hillmen, 

 being the Kalendaric termination of the wet season, and commencement 

 of the autumnal harvest ; on this occasion a human effigy called " Khu- 

 turwa," is made of straw and sticks, decorated with the jhoola (Anten- 

 naria) and other flowers, paraded about the village, and in the evening 

 thrown into a large bonfire : an emblem perhaps of the parting sun. 



\2th March. — To Burm Deo, 8 coss, about 10 miles. The places 

 which occur on the route are Tootooria, 1 coss : Chela, an open spot 

 without trees or water, (such are called "Thuppur") ; both these Goths 

 are just deserted : a little beyond Chela, called 2 coss from Tootooria, 

 is Kopatal, so named from a deep pool formed by a stream which here 

 issues by a most romantic, shaggy, glen from the mountains : the path 

 ascends by its right or south bank through Sal forest to Dana Goth 



