TIMUR BEG. 
53 
in Boutan, being through a single gate, which is not 
flanked or defended by any part of the building. 
This place is esteemed by the natives a masterpiece 
of magnificence and strength. It has really some pre- 
tensions to the former, nor would it be easily reduced 
by arrows and matchlocks.” 
From this description a general idea may be formed 
of the castles constructed in those bleak and sterile 
altitudes, where Nature seems everywhere to frown 
upon her own sublimity. The fortress in the engrav- 
ing has precisely the character of that just described ; 
but, though a striking and imposing edifice, it has no 
pretensions to magnificence; nor indeed, with some 
few exceptions, have any of the hill-forts through- 
out the whole continent of Asia. Not only, however, 
do the public edifices, such as their forts and temples 
dedicated to the purposes of religion, exhibit strong 
marks of taste, and a nice discrimination of architec- 
tural propriety, but the private houses generally are 
not inferior to those erected in the alpine regions in 
Europe. In many of the villages the dwellings are 
four stories high, built of stone and clay, and roofed 
with shingles. The lower story is employed for the 
stabling of cattle and for lumber, the upper rooms only 
being inhabited. These are reached from the ground, 
floor by ladders, no staircase being employed in any of 
the houses in those hills. There is no appearance of 
misery or painful privation among these highlanders. 
Their habitations are mostly erected upon lofty sites, 
owing to the scarcity of even ground, which obliges 
them to take as little as possible from agriculture. 
They build, therefore, chiefly upon spots which could 
f 3 
