ABORS AND GALONGS. 95 



visited by any of the party that proceeded up the valley, but it was seen from the 

 right bank of the river that the fertile tracts extend from somewhere above Rinchen- 

 pung, to a little below Bi-pung. 



Below Shirang the Memba villages are made up of thatched houses and hardly 

 differ in appearance from those of the Angong Abors. While the Membas are most 

 distinctly degenerate, the Angong Abors, who are markedly under Memba influence, 

 have copied some of their customs and adopted as many articles of their clothing 

 as the}* can secure. Certain things are of course articles of commerce through- 

 out the length and breadth of the hills, but only in the Angong villages north 

 of the Sirapateng did "cash" appear, or wooden drinking cups became common 

 or Memba ideas in general obtrude into the everyday life of the people. 



Coming up the valley there is of course an obvious change above Tuting, when 

 the Lamaistic religion in its most perfunctory form takes the place of the Abor ritual. 

 The piles of stones, the chhortens/ the prayer-barrels and the clumps of high poles, 

 with their text- inscribed banners are quite unmistakable. But the character of the 

 country does not entirely alter until the neighbourhood of Lingkong is reached. The 

 first cantilever bridge, although it brought home the evident superiority of the 

 new people whose acquaintance was just in the making, gave no idea of the really 

 startling change from Abor land that greeted one when the first typical Memba land- 

 scape burst into view at the head of a rise. 



And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 

 Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree, 

 And here were forests ancient as the hills, 

 Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. 



Streams clear as crystal irrigated the fields, and over nearly all of them some- 

 where on their hurrying course to the Tsanpo, stood a little stone house in which a 

 Persian wheel turned the prayers of the pious donors. Although prosperous the 

 country is palpably priest-ridden and wandering friars visit and sometimes make con- 

 siderable stays in the villages south of the country where monasteries are neither few 

 nor far between. By keeping the trade monopoly in their own hands and by working 

 on the superstitions of the people to encourage endowments to the monasteries by 

 far the greater part of what wealth the country possesses is in the hands of the lamas. 

 They also own the best land. Still the people in general as compared with the 

 Abors live in a state of luxury and civilization. Education is not confined entirely 

 to the monks. The headmen of the villages and possibly one or two of the house- 

 holders in the community can as a rule read and write what I took to be the 

 ordinary Tibetan character. 



The Memba currency is the Tibetan ' tangka ' ; those that were collected were all 

 identified in Mr. Walsh's Memoir "The coinage of Tibet." The coins varied con- 



1 Masonry shrines with a small interior chamber containing religious books and stones inscribed with prayers. 

 The slate that walls them in is frequently engraved and sometimes a panel of stone lattice-work is found instead. See 

 Sir T. Holdich's Tibet, p. 242. 



