1853.] Notes upon a Tour in the SikJcim Himalayah Mountains. 549 



French deal box, that had once held brandy, and addressed in good 

 English to " Mr. W. Martin, Darjeeling." The usual human thigh 

 bone trumpets were locked up, they being considered too precious 

 to be left about. These bone trumpets, if possible, are the thigh 

 bones of Lamas, some of them are highly ornamented with brass 

 work brought from Thibet. The two condyles at the extremity of 

 the bone are pierced and the bone hollowed out and when about to 

 be used, a small quantity of water is poured down the bone to make 

 it sound clear. The sound emitted is like that from a brazen horn, 

 and as a small hand drum, with pellets of clay or brass tied upon 

 strings depending from the rim and serving as drumsticks, is gene- 

 rally used in the other hand, the noise produced is stunning. In 

 .several Goompas or monasteries, I have requested the Lamas to blow 

 up the bone trumpets, to which requests they have always good 

 naturedly acceded, terminating their performance with a hearty fit 

 of laughter at their own strange and wild noise. 



The whole of the walls of our room were decorated with mystic 

 squares, triangles, and other figures of white, yellow, and black 

 pigments ; the door was a block of wood turning on its own heej 

 which was stepped into a wooden socket, the walls were composed 

 of planks and wattles covered with mud and pierced with two win- 

 dows with sliding shutters. The Lama receives five rupees from 

 the Sikkim Rajah annually. 



This Groompa or monastery is situated near the large landslip that 

 is visible from Darjeeling, this landslip, which is several thousand 

 feet in height and one hundred broad, has a pretty stream of water 

 flowing amongst its rocks ; when heavy rain takes place the rocks 

 begin to move downwards, causing a low rumbling sound, loud enough 

 to awaken the members resident at the Goompa. The view from 

 this spot looking back upon Darjeeling, only nine miles distant, the 

 deep valleys at our feet many thousands of feet deep, the lofty 

 Tonglo mountain to the South "West and the foaming cataract on 

 the landslip, well repaid us for two days' toil and the suffocating heat 

 of the valleys. 



Around the neck of one of the Lepcha children, hung as a charm, 

 I observed, the following curious collection of oddities, a leopard's 

 and a barking deer's canine teeth, an ornamented brass bead, a piece 



