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



desirous of decyphering the inscription at his leisure, and actually car- 

 ried it to Lodh ; there however, the whole countryside assembled to 

 reclaim their goddess, which was freely restored with mutual explana- 

 tions, my friend shewing them it was merely a bit of some old edifice, 

 and they assuring us that it had fallen from the skies. Their extreme 

 docility in these matters is indicated by such a government under a 

 Queen Log ; in Kunnawur, the inhabitants require being kept in order 

 by the most frightful images of alligator and tiger-headed monsters, 

 and Chimserus with a hundred arms, disemboweling and devouring 

 their foes. It is wonderful that the temporal rulers of the world 

 should never have taken a hint from the sanctuary, and converted their 

 menageries into active means for quelling the spirit of revolt ; it is pro- 

 bable that a hundred lions judiciously loosed in Paris during the Three 

 glorious days might have saved their master his throne ; but hitherto, 

 this engine of state has only been brought passively into operation, and 

 by only two nations, the Chaldeeans and the Romans, who were wont 

 to feed their lions on the martyrs ; but martyrs are rare now-a-days. 



At the celebration of the Dusuhra, the inhabitants of the surround- 

 ing districts assemble at Doonagiri in considerable numbers for devotion 

 and traffic ; the existence of the fair, however, denotes a somewhat infe- 

 rior rank in our " Dark Lady of Doona ;" at Doonagiri, &c, her festi- 

 val is supposed to be perpetual ; and gifts are equally acceptable during 

 all the twelve months. Returned to Lodh in the afternoon, and on 

 the 14th to Somesur, where the heat is now becoming oppressive. 



loth May. — To Pinnath village, the "Muth" of the map ; distant 

 about 7 miles : the first half up the right bank of the Kosilla, the 

 remainder till, close to Pinnath, on the left. About three miles from 

 this place, the made road turns up the mountain to the east, to Byz- 

 nath, which is called 6 coss distant. The scenery is very lovely ; hills 

 of every size and form covered with oak and pine contrasting with the 

 rich, though narrow belt of ripening corn along the course of the river, 

 which, now reduced to a mere burn, flows along a ravine fringed with 

 Rose, Whitethorn, Willow, Phulliant and Banj oak, Symplocos race- 

 mosa, Berberis aristata, Berchemia floribunda, Indigofera (arborea ?) 

 Photinia dubia ; forming a delicious jumble of colors and scents. About 

 2 miles above Somesur, on the opposite bank, is the romantic hamlet 

 of Jyoshee ka mulla, on a hill, with a Vallombrosian foliage of Walnut^ 



