1848.] The Turaee and Outer- Mountains of Kumaoon. 623 



the Rohillas ; near these the fish are religiously preserved, no doubt in 

 honor of the Matsya avatar ; it is curious enough to discover the same 

 superstition amongst the ancient Syrians, as noted by Xenophon in the 

 Anabasis. 



With frequent falls to all hands from the quantity of pirol or pine- 

 leaves on the ground, we descended to the Kosilla and crossed it where 

 it quits the Sutulia gorge between two huge crags. A mile or more 

 lower down, on the right bank is Kantulee village, 5395 feet above 

 Calcutta (R. S.) where the Sugar-cane is largely cultivated. Pinnath 

 (Muth) Hamlet is two miles farther down. 



\Sth May. — From Somesur to Gunnanath, 6 or 7 miles, the first two 

 along the left bank of the Kosilla, crossing the Munsaree Roul, and 

 then up the pretty dell of Khylkhoor watered by a stream from Gun- 

 nanath. Near its confluence with the Kosilla stands a grove of cedars, 

 sacred to Kshetr Pal ; a little higher up, on the same (left) bank, 

 dwells an " Olia," or Hail-man, " Indra-ka-bhugut," whose duty, for 

 which he is well fed, consists in the repetition of " munturs," or, in ex- 

 treme cases, pouring out libations of his own blood to Jupiter Tonans, 

 in order to protect the crops from the hail. Lightning conductors 

 would, perchance, be more effectual than both Tonans and Wizard ; 

 for, in spite of all his incantations and cuttings, and this sacerdotal 

 guano with which he sprinkles the fields, the hailstorms are very 

 destructive in Kumaoon : during this very month, the entire rubbee 

 crop of the Kupkot valley was levelled with the ground, and abandoned 

 to the cattle ; on the 20th of October following, a hailstorm from the N. 

 W. fell on the province, including Almorah, killing birds, the lesser 

 cattle, and breaking down the little vegetation there remaining. It 

 came on about 3 p. m. like one of Milton's "two black clouds with hea- 

 ven's artillery fraught," in the form of a stupendous arch, which rapidly 

 overspread the sky, and, depositing a thick stratum of hail on the 

 ground, passed over in about half an hour. This storm extended its 

 devastation as far south as Banda in Bundlekhund, and probably much 

 further. The foul weather, which we experienced on Bhut Kot, was 

 also very general over India, which probably shares in all the greater 

 atmospheric changes of the Himalaya. 



Daily observation in these mountains, commends the sagacity of the 

 European Philosopher, who, in his distant study, detected and unravel- 



