1858.] On the Kirdntl tribe of the Central Himalaya. 451 



on marriage ; walls of thick reed, plastered, and the pent roof of 

 grass. Each family builds for itself. The women spin and weave 

 the cotton of native growth, which constitutes their sole wear, and 

 the men and women dye the clothes with madder and with other 

 wild plants — whereof one, a climber, yields a fine black colour. They 

 make fermented and distilled liquors for themselves, and use the 

 former in great quantities — the latter moderately. 



The Kirantis have not, nor ever had, letters or literature.* Their 

 religious notions are very vague. They have no name for the God 

 of gods, nor even for any special deity whatever, though the term 

 mang may be construed deity, and that of khyiramo or khyimmang, 

 household deity or penate. Nor is there any hereditary priesthood, 

 or any class set apart and educated for that office. Whom the 

 mang inspires, he is a priest and his duty is to propitiate the Khyirn- 

 mang or Penate of each family by an annual worship celebrated 

 after the harvest, and also to perform certain trivial ceremonies at 

 marriages and deaths, but not at births. The priest is named 

 Nakchhong, and he has, moreover, onee a year, to make offerings to 

 the manes (samkha) of the ancestors of each householder, or rather, 

 to all the deceased members of each family. 



The Kirantis believe heartily in the black art, and call its 

 professor Krakra, Kunyamayawo, &c. The professional anta- 

 gonist of this formidable person, who undoes the mischief, bodily 

 or mental, which the other had done, who is at once exorcist and 

 physician, is named in the various dialects, Janicha, Maugpa, &c. 



There are only two religious festivals per annum, one to the 

 Khyimmo or Penate and the other to the samkha or souls of the 

 deceased. 



As already said, birth is not attended by any religious obser- 

 vances. 



The Kiraotis buy their wives, paying usually 25 to 30 rupees, 

 frequently in the shape of copper household utensils. If they have 



* The Limbus, like the Lepchas,have an alphabet seemingly original but neither 

 people has made much use of it. I submitted these alphabets to the native and 

 English scholars of Madras, Ava and Arrakan and was told they could not be 

 traced to any Indo -Chinese or Dravidian source. I had priorly received a like 

 disclaimer from the Lamas of Tibet. 



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