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



even different deities from the Hindus, who merely bestow a faint 

 recognition of respect on passing these Dii minorum gentium. The 

 chief of these is called " Nurungkar" — " the maker of men," to whom 

 they offer hogs, fowls, and other unclean things, a practice which may 

 indicate a connection with the non-Hindoo races of the mountains and 

 forests of India. They also hold the demigods Hurroo, Sym, &c. in 

 great veneration. A common tradition relates that the Dooms once 

 gained the mastery of the province, and established a leather coinage : 

 iEsop's fable in operation ! The view from Deo Dhoora is celebrated as 

 being one of the finest in Kumaoon : it includes Thakil, Jhoom, 

 Binsur, and a host of nameless ranges to the west and south ; the 

 snows were but dimly visible through the haze which has set in un- 

 usually early this season, and, while it lasts is a most effectual "Burke 

 on the sublime and beautiful." Its origin is disputed ; some consider 

 it to be fine dust blown up from the plains, the winds restoring to the 

 mountains what the waters have carried away, or a portion of it : but 

 having observed that the atmosphere is little if at all cleared by heavy 

 falls of rain at this season, I should say it was more justly considered 

 to be aqueous vapor, in the state which Professor Forbes calls " dry 

 haze." Early in August 1847, after a very wet July, which (to adopt 

 a conceit of the Edda), must have converted the dust of Hindoosthan 

 into its brother, mud, the haze returned as dense as before, so as to ob- 

 scure every object beyond a range of four or five miles. The ordinary 

 termination of this Egyptian darkness is the commencement of the wet 

 season, the intensity of the vapor, whatever it consist of, increasing up 

 to that period. 



Deo Dhoora, 6800 feet, is the highest, Kupkot on the Surjoo, 3400 

 feet above the sea-line, the lowest level at which I have observed the 

 Silung ; flourishing, however, at both points, so that its limits may 

 safely be extended a thousand feet more in each direction. Mr. Edge- 

 worth thinks it is Olea acuminata var. longifolia : and the Almorah 

 Pundits inform me that it is the Shileendruh of the Sanscrit scriptures. 

 II. H. Wilson merely defines the word "a sort of tree," and does not 

 give the etymology, which seems to infer "holding a stone," or "firm 

 in stones ;" in allusion either to its druped fruit, or to the stone seats 

 which are usually built about its base, for the accommodation of the 

 Himalayan Wittenagemotes. ,- 



