638 Notes upon a Tour in the Sikkim Himalayah Mountains. [No. 7. 



fying at the same time to the good nature and good temper of these 

 interesting people, whom no hardship or discomfort appears to ruffle. 

 After travelling for nearly twenty years amongst the "noli me 

 tangere" Hindus, who, fenced about with a cruel caste, refuse all 

 approach to familiarity, sociality, or even kindness with any one, 

 even with one of their own caste, the change to Lepcha followers 

 for Hindus is most pleasing : on one hand there is the brooding, 

 moody Hindu, exchanging no thought with any one ; eating his food 

 in silence and alone ; his fear lest any one below him in caste should 

 touch him; his dread lest any of the hundred omens observed 

 between his rising up in the morning and his lying down at night 

 should not have been properly divined and acted up to ; the cruel 

 bondage to which his every action in life is subservient, makes the 

 unfortunate Hindu any thing but a pleasant companion: on the 

 other hand we have the free, happy, laughing and playful, no-caste 

 Lepcha, a child of the mountains, modest, social and joyous in dis- 

 position. 



I have watched the Lepchas after a good day's work playing 

 amongst themselves, either racing on foot, playing at hop-step and 

 a jump, quoits, wrestling and jumping ; or walking up to a companion 

 and throwing his arm round his neck, a Lepcha will pretend to be 

 asking some question, in the middle of the pretended conversation, 

 his friend receives a violent kick from behind, he turns round to see 

 who is the culprit, no one is there and his friend has disappeared 

 screaming with laughter at the trick he has played a hundred times 

 before ; a chase takes place, they run, they double, the culprit is 

 caught, they wrestle and end by rolling upon the sward locked in 

 each other's arms, they rise in good humour and go off to play the 

 same trick upon some one else. I frequently brought these pastimes 

 to a temporary close by offering the Lepchas a plate full of rice, 

 ham, sausages, or perhaps half a raw flitch of bacon ; panting from 

 these healthy exercises, they would take the viands, their very teeth 

 grinning thanks, sit down on the grass and divide the mess amongst 

 each other. 



