/ 
BOOTAN. 18! 
corn, and their skill well deserved our attention. They confronted 
r 
each other, three in a row ; and the corn was strewed between them ; 
and they thumped it, wielding their flails (two stout staves, joined 
together by a flexible thong) with such dexterity, that though perhaps 
not a blade escaped unstruck, yet they never once entangled, nor 
clashed in the operation. 
We were kept by many impediments at Paro till near noon ; when, 
quitting our quarters, we descended the stone slope, and turning to 
the right,, crossed the bridge below the palace, and proceeded up the 
valley, not far from the banks of the Patchieu. We passed through 
the market-place, as the peasants were beginning to assemble; none of 
them left their pursuits to follow us; and the boys that were playing 
about looked at us only for a moment, with an appearance of surprise, 
but without any sort of rustic rudeness. Two Booteeas would have 
passed through few English towns, so peaceably. 
The Zeenkaub, whom the Daeb had appointed to attend me to 
Tibet, invited us to deviate a little from the high road, and we all fol¬ 
lowed him till we came to some carpets laid upon the ground, beneath 
a bower, formed with branches of the willow tree, where we were 
entreated to alight. Benches were immediately placed before us, and 
almost as instantaneously covered with a variety of fruits, parched 
rice, Sec. and we were plentifully supplied with buttered tea and 
whisky. Our guide was himself active, in waiting upon us, and con¬ 
sidered our acceptance of his invitation to halt, as a peculiar compli- 
s 
ment. A village in the vicinity was, I learnt, the place of his birth, 
as well as the present residence of his family. Some of them came, 
