B O 0 T A N. 
85 
scarcely perceptible; and the eyebrow is but slightly shaded. Below 
the eyes, is the broadest part of the face, which is rather flat, and nar¬ 
rows from the cheekbones to the chin; a character of countenance ap¬ 
pearing first to take its rise among the Tartar tribes, but is by far more 
strongly marked in the Chinese. Their skins are remarkably smooth, 
and most of them arrive at a very advanced age, before they can boast 
even the earliest rudiments of a beard: they cultivate whiskers, but 
the best they produce, are of a scanty straggling growth. In this heroic 
acquisition I quickly surpassed them; and one of my Mogul attendants, 
for the luxuriancy of his, was the admiration of them all. Many of these 
mountaineers are more than six feet high ; and, taken altogether, 
they have a complexion not so dark by several shades as that of the 
European Portugueze. 
Though it be somewhat to their discredit, yet impartiality obliges 
me to own, that my new friends were far from having any very nice 
notions of cleanliness. The ablution I have just noticed, is a prac¬ 
tice connected with their religion, and not repeated more frequently 
than it enjoins. The ministers, it may be observed, are totally a 
distinct class, confined solely to the duties of their faith; and the 
common people, pretending to no interference in matters of spiritual 
concern, leave religion, with all its forms and ceremonies, to those who 
are attached from early habit to its obligations, prejudices, and pre¬ 
scriptions: and hence, no doubt, many find an apology for abjuring the 
use of water, as nature offers it, either on their persons, or at their 
meals. During our stay at Tassisudon, the Gylongs marched regularly 
once in every succeeding week, to the performance of this salutary 
/ 
