1862.] Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. 497 
23rd, Chini .—A stiff march, the road often steep and difficult, es¬ 
pecially near Chini where it is in some places carried along very 
precipitous ground by means of stairs and scaffolding. Near Chini 
saw two bears in the valley beneath the road, but sport must have 
greatly deteriorated since Col. Markham saw bears in the Busba valley, 
(across the Sutlej,) feeding literally by dozens on the hill sides. At 
Chini there is a large, but unfinished and comfortless bungalow, and 
close to it some fine old poplar trees. The village is wretchedly 
small, though there is a very large spread of cultivation near, and 
supplies are dear and with difficulty procurable. Height 9096 feet, 
the village being about 3000 feet above the river. 
2 5th, Pengi .—A short and uninteresting march, the trees in places 
dwarfed from the close proximity of the uppermost limit of their 
growth. On the hills across the Sutlej, the highest limit of trees is 
sharply defined and is somewhere about 12,500 feet. Poplars, apricots 
and walnuts plentiful and thriving round Pengi, and also excellent 
blackberries, or the Kunawar representative of that home fruit, which 
with the addition of a little sugar formed a very palatable desert. In 
the vestibule of the temple of Devi at this place, I noticed some fine 
apricots hung up, which called to mind the ancient Roman custom 
of votive offerings to the rural deities—- 
“ Flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona 
Spicea, quae templipendent ante fores.” Tibullus, El. I. 
One of my Hindustani servants, who let no opportunity slip of exhi¬ 
biting their own superiority and contempt for the unsophisticated 
inhabitants of the hills, enquired of the headman somewhat superci¬ 
liously, of what use the apricots were to Devi—“Did she eat them?” 
His reply rather pleased me, for instead of returning an abusive an¬ 
swer, as any Hindustani would have done in the plains under such 
provocation, he quietly asked who it was that caused those same 
apricots to grow. “ If you” he continued “ can make so much as 
one such apricot grow, I myself will give you five rupees for it.” 
This reply, made with much dignity and without any temper, was 
evidently not what my servant expected, and completely silenced 
him, for he had sense to perceive that his sarcasm had failed to pro¬ 
duce any irritation, and that he was getting the worst of the discus- 
3 T 
sion. 
