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



led the tangled processes of thought and practice, which maintain the 

 Olia and similar swindlers. " Ayant eprouve que certaines pratiques 

 envers ses semblables avaient Peffet de modifier a son-gre leurs affections, 

 et de diriger leur conduite, il employa ces pratiques avec les etres puis- 

 sants de l'univers ; il se dit ; " quand mow semblable, plus fort que 

 moi, veut me faire du mal, je m'abaisse devant lui, et ma priere a l'art 

 de le calmer. Je prierai les etres puissante qui me frappent ; je supplie- 

 rai les intelligences des vents, des astres, des eaux, et elles m'enten- 

 dront ; je les conjurerai de detourner les maux, de me dormer les biens 

 dont elles disposent ; je les toucherai par mes larmes ; je les flecherai 

 par mes dons, et je jouirai du bien-etre. 



Et l'homme, simple dans l'enfance de sa raison, parla au soleil, a la 

 lune ; il anima de son esprit et de ses passions les grands agents de la 

 nature ; il crut, par de vains sons, par de vaines pratiques, changer 

 leurs lois inilexibles : erreur funeste ! II pria la pierre de monter, l'eau 

 de s'elever, les montagnes de se transporter, et substituant un monde 

 fantastique au monde veritable, il se constitua des etres d'opinion, pour 

 1'epouvantail de son esprit, et le tourment de sa race." Les Ruines, 

 C. xxii. 



If there be but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, a step 

 in the opposite direction leads to superstition ; which seems to enslave 

 the mind of the mountaineer in the same degree as " the mountain 

 Nymph, sweet liberty," emancipates his person ; the grand scale as to 

 quantity, number, force, and variety, on which all the processes of 

 nature are carried on around, seems universally to have quelled his 

 spirit to the most abject submission to the marvellous and supernatural. 



From the enchanter's home, our path gradually ascended the sloping 

 southern face of Gunnanath, amongst Pine, and a profusion of Combre- 

 tum nanum ; on the right hand, across the Khylkoor, is the woody 

 range of Bhalkot, on which Hustee Dul, the Gorkhalee Governor of 

 the province was killed in 1815. It is connected with Gunnanath to 

 the N. E. by a low and spacious plot of grassy land, called Gunes ka 

 Tul, from which the Khylkoor flows to the west, and the Takoola, 

 also draining the south face of Gunnanath, to the east and south, 

 where it waters the Sutrali valley. 



Gunnanath mountain extends from east to west about 2\ or 3 miles, 

 and is composed of a kind of iron clay slate (or greenstone ?) with a 



