ABORS AND GALONGS. 



107 



July 2nd. 



July 3rd. 

 YORTOXG. 



especially in wet weather, wear chogas pleated round them kiltwise, apron in front. 

 The thick chocolate-coloured Memba cloths worn by the Abors from Riga northwards 

 are only put on in rainy weather. Long surcoats made by sewing two skins at the 

 shoulders leaving a hole at the place where the necks join for the wearer's head to 

 be thrust through poncho-fashion are also worn. They are neatly bound and sewn 

 with red leather. The crowns of their wide-brimmed straw rain-hats shine with plates 

 of mica. 



At Yortong, Dopo and his young son came in to see me. The headman Dopo says 

 that he himself migrated from Darma. I extracted the following short list of Memba 

 words which, as I have an indifferent ear, I give for what they are worth: — 



Man 





. Minh, 



village 





• Yi, 



dry rice 



■field 



Burra, 



tree 





S hin g- she, 



mountain 



. Phu, 



water 





Ngam-tsu, 



salt 





In-cha, 



tea 





. Tcha-i, 



sheep 





Si-sa , 



dog 





. Khi, 



woman 



house 



wet rice 



bamboo 



stream 



fire 



rice (grain) 



mi than 



pig 



monastery 



chhorten 



Bur-minh, 



Pai-e, 



Rhi, 



Tso, 



Chu, 



Tsong-o, 



Khu, 



Pa, 



Pa, 



Hora, 



Tschegi. 



The Membas call the big copper medal that they wear, engraved with the Twelve 

 Year Calendar of Beasts, tsa-tsum. A looking-glass is milang and this may, as 

 Hore, of the 120th Rajputana Infantry, has suggested, be the origin of the specula- 

 shaped merang of the Abors. 



Dopo tells me there is one head Lama — of great importance — with 30 Lamas 

 under him at Marpung monastery. This corroborates Kinthup's statement. 



On our way up to the village, met a man and a very comely young woman 

 on their way back to Khong-Bo — -over the Doshung La. The lady wore a pleasant 

 shade of maroon and the round pork-pie hat becomingly set on her neatly plaited 

 hair was bound with silk of the same colour. Dopo asked me into his house. 

 He has a narrow entrance hall extending athwart the building : his guest-room 

 was on the left and I was ushered in to find eight people sitting solemnly — 

 like so many Buddhas — with little black stools in front of them, and on the black 

 stools their wood and silver cups. A young woman from a group about the fireplace 

 was handing round f< a-rah," filling the little cups from a large brass toddy ladle ; 

 I was given a place on a carpet on the extreme right. Save that the fireplace 

 was more elaborate, the room larger and better built and evidences of wealth 

 fairly apparent, the room was like the first I had seen in Kopu village; but the women 

 wore far better clothes, had a better appearance and possessed many more ornaments 

 of (comparative) value than their sisters lower down the valley. The fireplace was 

 built on big flagstones with a square curbstone round it. The fire blazed in a 

 square-built oven over which a pot was simmering. On a shelf and hanging on the 

 wall behind were the cooking utensils. The neatness and order of these houses is 



