126 
BOOTAN. 
beech, birch, maple, pine fir, yew, and cypress, were among the number; 
we saw also by the road side, with no small satisfaction, bushes loaded 
with ripe blackberries. Insignificant as this fruit is, yet, recalling 
domestic partialities to the imagination, and the image of those scenes 
which youth and health formerly endeared, we plucked and ate them 
with avidity. A cold philosopher might have contemptuously passed 
by such trivial trash; but he would not have formed any conception 
of the luxurious treat which we enjoyed. 
About noon, we emerged from these dark woods, and came at once 
upon a clear level ground, where we found a few of the Raja’s ser¬ 
vants in low sheds, which they had formed of boughs, sitting about a 
fire of dried fir leaves. We alighted from our horses, and were ad¬ 
mitted of their party. Drenched as our clothes were with rain, the 
warmth of the fire, and the hot tea which their hospitality prepared 
for us, enabled us to pursue our way with additional spirit. Their 
preparation of tea with butter, salt, and flour, the leaf being boiled 
till it is tender, and all the ingredients intimately blended together, 
was a regale, from which at first our tastes revolted with disgust; but 
so early a reconciliation, placed in the strongset point of view, the 
force of habit, both in creating and effacing prejudices; and, strange 
as it may appear, convinced me, that this kind of tea-gruel, wants 
only the recommendation of custom, to be esteemed a luxury. 
At a short distance from this place, we passed by a village of con¬ 
siderable extent, situated on the side of a hill, which was almost wholly 
cultivated. The country now began to open, and improve on our view. 
Proceeding onwards we forded a stream, not deep, but limning with 
