J 5 6 
BOOTAN, 
\ 
giving but a pale and feeble blossom; the pomegranate finds a more 
congenial soil, and produces the largest and most excellent fruit of its kind. 
We were treated, on our arrival, with tea, 8cc. which was followed 
by strawberries, and another fruit, growing wild, smaller, but not 
unlike a ripe sloe. The weather was clear and temperate: there was 
• t 
a delightful, silent serenity in this retreat; and the eye dwelt with 
satisfaction on the different shades of verdure, in the variegated scene. 
Two musicians, placed at a distance, played upon reed instruments, 
in wild and not unharmonious strains, while the Raja held us in 
conversation, on the customs and produce of foreign countries ; 
subjects on which he sought for information, with insatiable avidity. 
I selected the most striking peculiarities of all nations for his enter¬ 
tainment , and he, in his turn, told me of wonders, for which I claim 
no other credit, than that of repeating with fidelity the story of my 
author. 
In the first place, he mentioned a race of people, of uncommon sta¬ 
ture, inhabiting a prodigiously high mountain, whose base was many 
days journey in circumference. The country lay east of Bootan; and 
being far distant, his subjects had never had any intercourse with it; 
but two of these people had, some years ago, wandered hither, and 
they were the admiration of all the inhabitants; being not less, accord¬ 
ing to his description, than eight feet high. They stayed but a short 
time, and seemed happy at the thoughts of returning to their gigantic 
brethren. 
In the same range of mountains, north of Assam, he informed me 
there were a species of human beings, with short straight tails, which, 
