through fJic Himalaya Mountains. 299 
alone of leather. The people are very dark, and extremely dirty, 
but they seem to enjoy a much greater degree of comfort than 
any of the other mountaineers we saw. The villages are gene- 
rally large, and the houses spacious, and even elegant. They are 
built of stone and wood, and either slated or flat roofed ; the last 
is most common. The temples of the Deotas (deities) are mag- 
nificent, and adorned with a profusion of ornaments. There are 
two or three in almost every village ; and the various feats ascri- 
bed to their gods surpass belief ; there is scarcely one of them 
that has not got the credit of removing some mountain or large 
rock to make the road passable, &c. 
The level spaces of land in Koonawur are few, the crops are 
extremely poor, and a want of grain pervades the whole country. 
In time of scarcity, pears, and horse-chesnuts, after being steeped 
in water to take away their bitterness, are dried, and ground into 
flour. There are, however, no marks of poverty, and the natives 
subsist by exchanging raisins and wool for grain. They have 
little to do, but look after their vineyards, and attend to their 
flocks, which in summer are sent to pasturage at some distance 
from the villages. Bears are very numerous, and commit great 
ravages. In the grape season, during the whole night several 
people from every village, together with their dogs, are employed 
in driving them off. 
The dogs are of a large ferocious breed, covered with wool,, 
and extremely averse to strangers, whom they often bite and 
tear in a most shocking manner. They are commonly chained 
during the day, otherwise it would be dangerous to approach a 
village. 
The winter is rigorous, and for three months there is no mo- 
ving out of the villages from the quantities of snow. During 
this season the inhabitants employ themselves in weaving blan- 
kets. They early begin to collect their Vv^inter-stock of fuel, and 
food for their cattle, which latter consists chiefly of the leaves of 
trees, and they pile it upon the tops of their houses. The Koo- 
nawur language, of which we made a collection of near 1000 
words, differs much from the Hindoo, most of the substantives 
ending in ing and ung^ and the verbs in mig and nig. 
On the 3d October the thermometer was 15° below the freez- 
ing point, and the cold intolerable ; we therefore waited till two 
