3D£ COURSE AND LEVELS 



Hindus, that it is a matter altogether dispensed with by these people, who 

 have some excuse in the inhospitable nature of the climate. Whatever 

 their national virtues may be, it is certain that cleanliness is not to be 

 reckoned among them. Their women live under no restraint, but freely 

 expose themselves to view, not even deeming it necessary to shroud the 

 face in a veil or cloak. They have rather expressive though peculiar coun- 

 tenances, but their great charm is the ruddy complexion, which distinguish- 

 es them from the fairest born on this side of the snowy chain. They per- 

 form all the labours of agriculture, except those of ploughing and prepar- 

 ing the grounds and they are nearly as hardy and robust as the men. It is 

 a pleasing sight to a European to see a troop of them going to fetch water 

 from the spring, not in the Asiatic costume with an earthen pot on the 

 head, and their face shrouded by a cloth ; but in that of Europe, with ruddy 

 cheerful countenances, unconcealed and unsuspicious, and a wooden pail 

 under the arm. These pails are made of the juniper wood which is found 

 in Kanawer, though not in Hangarang, and which is in appearance an4 

 scent not unlike the American cedar : they are made chiefly at a place 

 called Ropa, 



Hangarang produces wheat, barley, oa, papar, and turnips, but no rice, 

 not even the kind peculiar to high and dry situations. There is but one 

 season; the trees, which are stunted, are only to be seen near the villages 

 or in the beds of streams; they consist of a few apricots and willows, dog- 

 rose, gooseberry, a species of currant, a thorny bush known at home by 

 the name of whin, and two species of shrubs not familiar to me, which pro- 

 duce excellent fruits, the one yellow and acid about the size of a currant, 

 the other red and mawkishly sweet. It contains nine villages, the revenue 

 of which is but 900 Rupees a year ; a small trade is carried on with Ladak 

 and Gertop, to both which places there are good roads. From the latter 

 place they bring salt and byangi wool, but no shawl wool, which seems to 

 be all reserved for the Ladak market. From Ladak they bring Pashminas 

 and other manufactures of the shawl wool, but the raw material appears tq 



