OP KAMAON, 213 



those who can afford to purchase it. Wheat is only in partial consumption, 

 chiefly on occasions of entertainments at marriages, &c., when the peculiar 

 scruples of Hindus prevent the use of rice. Vegetables of all kinds, both 

 cultured and wild, are objects of universal consumption; among the latter 

 description, not already noticed, may be mentioned the nettle, fern, tulip, 

 malu, &c., of which the shoots, root, and bean, respectively, are eaten : the 

 list of herbs, roots, and leaves, considered edible by the natives, is endless : in- 

 deed, from their indiscrimination in this respect, fatal cases of poison some- 

 times occur. During the periodical residence of the agricultural classes in 

 the Tarai, their principal food is " Guya," or sweet potatoes, boiled, and 

 eaten with butter-milk. 



Animal food is in much request among all classes ; with the exception 

 of those animals, the use of which, as food, is prohibited by their religion, 

 and excepting also reptiles of all descriptions, and carrion birds or beasts, 

 every sort of animal is converted to food, in some part or other of the hills : 

 by the southern Gerhwalis, rats and mice are considered as dainties. The 

 favorite flesh is that of the goat, or of the sheep, where bred : against the 

 sheep of the plains, an universal prejudice exists, its long tail rendering it, in 

 the eye of the Highlander, a species of dog. No scruple as to the mode of 

 decease exists, and animals dying a natural death from disease, or other 

 cause, are eaten by the Hindus, as well as by the Doms. 



Tobacco is smoked by all, but the highest caste Bramins, who substitute 

 Chir-ras, the inspissated juice of the hemp plant : they, however, chew the 

 leaf pounded and mixed with lime, a practice which prevails also among the 

 other classes. 



The use of spirituous liquors is, in Kamaon, confined to the lowest class 

 or Doms : in Gerlmal, the Hindus are less scrupulous, and excepting a few 



2 G 



