1*8300 
Visit to the Siccim Mountains. 
123 
humoured and intelligent young fellow, and good looking withal. They had been 
betrothed many years, and had no immediate prospect of being married, inasmuch as 
he had not yet made up the present, which it is usual for the parent, or he who 
stands in toco parentis, to exact from the suitor. In fact, in the enquiries suggested 
by the interest we took in this woman’s history, it was completely established that 
they buy their wives. The price of the article in question, which it is evident was 
rather above par, was 100 rupees. Mr. Grant, desirous of assisting' the lovers, ask- 
ed how much yet remained to he paid, and was told 40 rupees ; but to his offer to 
advance the money, it was answered, that though not paid, the lover had collected 
the sum, and that the wedding would now take place immediately. Apparently 
there was some feeling of delicacy that interfered with the acceptance of the offer ; 
nor will those who have seen the people, deem it chimerical to ascribe such and 
even greater delicacy of feeling to them. 
During the betrotlmient the lovers have every facility of meeting, which is a 
politic measure, inasmuch as it must tend to hasten the period of the pay- 
ment. They do not, apparently, like the term buy being applied to this singular 
arrangement. In fact, they pretend it is merely a present to cover the ex- 
penses which the guardian is subject to, both in providing the marriage feast, and 
• in endowing the bride with her proper share of goods and chattels. They appear 
to have learned, in their intercourse with the plains, that it is a custom confined to 
themselves ; and having been, 1 suppose, rallied on the subject, they try to hide the 
real nature of the transaction from themselves, or at least to disguise it. It is 
worthy of rem -rk, that the same custom, with many others, probably borrowed from 
Thibet, is to be found in our north-western mountains, though Hinduism is fully 
established there. Of these the most singular is Polyandry. It would be a curious 
inquiry to ascertain how women came to have such opposite relations amongst 
these people to what they have in every other nation : having money paid for them 
instead of conveying dower to the husband, and the allowance of several husbands 
to one wife, instead of, as elsewhere, to one husband several wives. Doubtless 
these national discrepancies had their origin in some peculiarity of situation or 
history, which it might be worth tracing. 
The following morning, having previously reduced the baggage to the lowest 
possible compass, we left Gyal, and immediately commenced the steep descent 
of the ridge. The road was very bad, and in some places not even quite safe, so 
precipitous was it. But for the trees which conceal the danger, it would perhaps, to 
many, appear impassahle. Certainly it could never be made a good road for gene- 
ral travelling. The approach, therefore, to Darjiling by the Tista side, was no 
longer a question. Towards the foot of the descent the heat became very oppres- 
sive, and we were delighted at last to tind ourselves in the river bed, and a beauti- 
ful natural ha<iu of greatextent and depth, as smooth as a millpond, and with sandy 
bottom, offering us the great refreshment of the bath — a refreshment which, in 
these mountains, is almost always within the reach of the heated and jaded traveller. 
Our camp was only about a mile beyond this beautiful spot, on the bank of the river, 
but in the middle of a thick jungle, the elevation being little beyond that of the 
plains. Wc had as usual a wigwam to sleep in, but preferred spreading our table 
for dinner on the fine level and gravelly beach of the river, with no other canopy hut 
that of the sky. At night we trusted to a blazing lire and two Lepcha sentries, to 
keep off wild animals, if there were any. It is probable there are tigers. 
On the 26th we marched, and there being no village, were obliged to bivouac as 
the preceding day, in the jungle. Our route at first ascended the lofty ridge, 
which here shuts in the river valley, and then pursued its course along the 
face of a higher range, passing round the several shorter glens or ravines by which 
it was intersected. Of rocks we had hitherto only met with gneiss, but here the 
grey-wacke slate began to prevail. We did not see any that was likely to be useful 
for roofing ; nor did we, as I expected, meet with any limestone. But as our 
researches were confined to the immediate line of route, it is cot the less likely to 
be found associated with this rock as to the north-west. Our route gradually 
descended, till we halted in the bed of a stream at a place called, Salam-g61a. 
While on the road, Mr. Grant received two musical boxes that lie had ordered 
from Calcutta, when leaving Malda, and which be had intended as a present to the 
Baja . Highly as we thought of the intelligence of these people, and great as we 
had observed their curiosity to be, the interest and admiration expressed by them 
on hearing these toys in action, exceeded what we had anticipated. At first they 
stood and listened in breathless admiration, not one of them venturing to speak. 
At last one of the most enthusiastic burst out into a loud laugh of wonder and 
