TO TAZEDO, ON THE CHINESE FRONTIER. 529 



gardens belonging to the Lahassa Sircar, which abound in fruit, such as wal- 

 nuts, and apples, and plums. Travellers are seldom prevented from gather- 

 ing some of these fruits. At this village I got six fowls' eggs for a needle. 



34th Stage, of five cos, to Nitang. From Ndm, one cos, you come to 

 the mountain of Ldchain-Lachun. Thence forward all is sandy plain. 

 In this stage you again see the Ytkb- Chdngo river. Nitang is a large town, 

 in which some Chinese live, from whom the traveller can buy dressed 

 meats for dinner. The shops exhibit quantities of Kochin and Postin, 

 and many other manufactures. There is a post house at Nitang. 



35th Stage, of three cos, to Thi-sambar. The whole way you travel 

 through cultivated fields of pease, and wheat, and barley. Thi-sambar is a 

 large town, tenanted, besides Bhotias, by Chinese and Newars, and Cashmiris. 



36th Stage, of three and a half cos, to Lahassa. One cos in advance 

 of Thi-sambar, is a town called Birbum*' situated at the base of a moun- 

 tain named Kimbu: the houses and roads of this town are made of stone. 

 The inhabitants of this place are obliged to wear one of three sorts of 

 cap called Pichili, and Chang-dama, and Sukhshd. If you wear not one 

 of these you get beaten by the people, and punished too by the authori- 

 ties. All the inhabitants of Birbum are Lamas, who practise celibacy. 

 No women can enter Birbum, save one day of the year, whereon a festi- 

 val is held. There are no shops within the place, but a market is held 

 without the walls daily from morn till noon, when the market is closed 

 by sound of bell. On the eighth month of the JShotia year, a festival is 

 held at Birbum, the origin of which the people account for by the fol- 

 lowing tale. Formerly, there were two Rulers of Birbum, one of them 



* So called in my text, but the context proves it to be a Monastery. However, in Bitot now, 

 as in Egypt of old, convents are often towns in size, and a great part of the population monastic. 



J. H. 

 p 4 



