ACCOUNT OF BHUTAN. 141 



cold is so excessive, that the snow lies from one to three feet deep, on the tops of 

 the houses. The people who remain to watch the houses cannot live without 

 fires, and they also wear four or five dresses, one above another, and night and 

 day drink tea and wine. On account of the cold, many of the inhabitants desert 

 the country at this season, and repair to the low country on the banks of the 

 Punakha and Andipur river. Most of the farmers have two houses, and 

 two farms, one of which they cultivate during the hot, and the other during 

 the cold weather. On the banks of the Andipur river as far as Jhargaon, 

 in Jeyte, the heat of the sun is excessive ; at that time the court and ma- 

 ny of the ryots leave Punakha and return to Tassisujon. At Punakha 

 if the weather is too hot, the court goes up to the northern fort, and 

 at Tassisujon, if it is too cold, they go to Dosim. The walls of the forts 

 are built of stone, laid in clay, and the houses are roofed with planks laid 

 upon one another, and secured without fastenings of any kind, merely by 

 placing a number of heavy stones upon them. The small gates of the forts 

 are made of wood, and the great gates are plated with iron. The walls of 

 the forts of Tassisujon and Punakha may be 30 feet high ; in the middle of 

 each of them there is a very lofty building, (at Tassisujon it is six or seven 

 stories high) in which the Dherma Raja lives, and it is surrounded with 

 smaller buildings for the accommodation of the Deb Raja, and the officers 

 of government. The walls are pierced with loop holes for the discharge 

 of musketry and arrows, and the gates are upon an ascent, and very difficult 

 of access. The Zinkaups and Poes of the offices of Government, reside 

 at the door of the sleeping apartments of their immediate superior, and then- 

 room is hung round with arms. There are bazars at Paragang, Tassisu- 

 jon, and Punakha, where are sold dry fish, tea, butter, coarse cloth, pan, 

 betle and vegetables, but rice, pulse, earthern pots, oil, salt, pepper, tur- 

 meric are not procurable. At Tassisujon fort there are 500 Gelums and 

 about 500 Zinkaups, Poes, &c. In Tangso and Paragang about 700, 

 at Andipur 400, and at Tagna 500 ; altogether the whole of the population 

 able to bear arms does not probably exceed 10,000. 



The Bhuteas have match-locks, but they are of little use, as they cannot 



