54 L. A. Waddell— Place and River-Names in Sikhim , Sfc. [No. 2, 
tlie rivers and the mountains and other sites in Sikhim, although re¬ 
maining as ethnological landmarks, might, through much longer delay, 
prove wholly unintelligible, through their meaning becoming lost. 
In my attempt to fix the etymology of some of these Lepcha names, 
I have to confess to the difficulty of the task in the absence of any voca¬ 
bulary ; but I have spared no pains in the endeavour to trace the exact 
meaning of the various roots by the help of the few more-intelligent 
Lepchas available (of literate Lepchas there are now none), and by local 
enquiry at most of the several spots during the past two or three years. 
Ethnic history of Sikhim. —A reference to the ethnic history of 
Sikhim itself is necessary in essaying the discovery of the system 
adopted by its inhabitants in naming places within its area. And first of 
all as to the limits and position of Sikhim. 
Sikhim defined. —Sikhim forms a narrow oblong tract in the south¬ 
eastern Himalayas and sub-Himalayas, wedged in between Nepal on the 
west and Bhotan on the east, and bounded on the north by Tibet and 
on the south by the plains of Bengal. Its position is peculiarly isolated, 
it being separated from Nepal and Bhotan by high wall-like ridges, 
from Tibet by the snows, and from Bengal by the dreaded Tarai jungle. 
Darjiling district defined. —The Darjiling District consists mainly 
of ‘British Sikhim/ i. e., the southern third of Sikhim, including the 
Sikhim Tarai (or Morang), the plains skirting the foot of the hills. To 
this tract was added, as a result of the Bhotan war of 1862, a slice of 
the hilly portion of western Bhotan from the Tista eastwards : the 
remainder of ‘ British Bhotan ’ is the tarai- tract known as the ‘ Dwars ’ 
and a strip of hill territory in the neighbourhood of the British frontier- 
posts of Buxa and Dewangiri, which for administrative purposes are 
included in the Jalpaiguri District and Asam, 
The Lejpchas. —As above stated, the Lepchas are believed to be the 
aborigines of Sikhim. Their own tradition, which, is very vague, 
credits them with having entered Sikhim about 500 years ago.* As, 
however, they preserve the tradition of a great local deluge,f it is 
probable that their entry was much earlier than this. The peculiarly 
* Col. Mainwaring in Introduction to Grammar, p. x. 
f This tradition is a somewhat circumstantial account of the flooding of the 
country by the Great Rangit river, quarrelling with its spouse the Tista and refusing 
to go with her to the plains. The waters rose as high as ‘ Rangli Rangliot ’ (q. v.), 
i. e., over 4000 feet above the present level of the river, and even Mt. Mainom the 
sister of Tendong was submerged, Tendong saving the inhabitants only by raising 
himself above the waters. The quarrel was ultimately mended and the pent-up 
waters fell. There are so many side-stories bearing on this great deluge, that it is 
almost certain that a great local flood actually happened here, by a vast landslip (vol¬ 
canic or otherwise} damming up the waters for a time. 
