240 Notes of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. [March, 



on the serpent Sesha during the rainy season ; hut the shastras 

 which affirm the fact, omit the reason ; this can be no other thara 

 that the earth is concealed from the skies by so dense a canopy 

 of clouds that even the Lotus-eyed himself cannot pierce it; and 

 hence, unable any longer to observe and preserve his very peculiar 

 people of India, he even goes to sleep like Baal of old, letting every 

 man go to the devil his own way. So also it would appear that their 

 representations of Kylas, Bykunth, Uluka, and Soomeroo, glittering 

 with gold and precious stones, are derived from the glorious tints 

 which light up the Hemakoot, or "Peaks of Gold/' when "the god 

 of gladness sheds his parting ray" on its snows ; aided perhaps by 

 the reality that gold, rock-crystal, &c. are found there, especially near 

 the sacred Lakes of Mansorowur, the neighbourhood of which is now 

 ascertained by Mr. Straehey actually to originate four great rivers,, 

 flowing to the cardinal points, viz. the Sanpoo, east ; Sutluj, west ; 

 Indus, north, and Gogra, (Kurnalee) south. Lastly, the shastras 

 affirm that the Ganges, &c. fall from heaven, and, just touching the 

 crests of the Himalaya, flows along the earth : a representation not 

 so utterly ridiculous to those who have seen the sources of these rivers 

 chiefly fed by innumerable cascades, pouring down their sheets of 

 water from the unseen plateaux above the glens. But enough of 

 Hindoo Geography ! 



I made some inquiries here concerning the Ma-murree, a very deadly 

 fever, which annually devastates whole villages in north-west Kumaoon 

 and south-east Gurhwal, but though the reverse is believed at Almorahs, 

 could not hear that it had ever penetrated to any place in our line of 

 Toute. It is chiefly prevalent in the hot season, and is accompanied 

 by buboes under the ears and armpits, and on the groin, exactly as in 

 the plague ; attacking for the most part the population clad in woollens, 

 and unquestionably originating in the extreme filthiness of their per- 

 sons and villages. The disease is mentioned as a typhus fever in Mr, 

 Traill's report ; and has lately excited a more lively interest from its 

 having last season approached within 14 kros of Almorah, and included 

 the cotton-weavers amongst its victims. Such is the consternation 

 caused by its appearance, that the village is immediately deserted, and 

 the patient left to shift for himself, which, considering the Sangrado 

 simplicity of native prescriptions, such as violets in cholera, &c. may 



