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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
was of every kind, some bringing wheaten, others that of barley, a third of "phaplun," buckwheat, &c. All were then mixed up together for the purpose of making cakes, which were of a most unsatisfactory quality. I could not ascertain how the assessment was apportioned, but it must be done by some rule; the prices, however, were settled by the headman of the village (muktiyar), and all' supplies were paid for on the spot. We often found the villagers unwilling to part with a pound of flour, the supply barely meeting the local demand. Only two or three men were to be seen in the village, the rest being absent and, engaged in carrying. salt, grain, wool, &c., or in herding the sheep on the hill-side. Strange to say, these women were not afraid of Europeans, nor did they make any attempt to conceal their features, so that by means of an interpreter I managed to obtain much information from them. I suppose the cold in winter is too great for grapes, as I saw none here; but the barley, some species of which (the caerulean) I have seen at nearly 13,000 feet at Nako, waved luxuriantly in the little fields. A little way from my tent lived a Lama,' or Buddhist priest. He had a queer little tent pitched on the top of a house, in which he sat the livelong day, continually turning a small mánni or inscribed cylinder, which at each revolution on its axis struck a little bell. He was an old wizened man, flatfaced, with high cheekbones, his hair in long thick plaits twisted round his head. During my stay of two days I did not see him visited by any one. What a strange life to lead!
"Strange noises are often heard near this, amongst the mighty Raldang peaks, and I have often lain awake at night hoping to hear them. Last night I did so. The sound at one time was like distant thunder, at another like what one would fancy the breaking up of ice at sea would be, at another like an avalanche, and again like huge stones bounding from rock to rock. They may have really been compound
The polyandry described resembles that of the Todas on the Nilgiri Hills. A form of polyandry prevails commonly in the extreme south of India amongst the Vellalars, a race of well-to-do farmers. Grown women are there married to very young boys, and have children by the fathers. of the boys, who when they come to maturity find a family ready for them, and themselves do as their fathers did! It is curious and striking, however, to find the very same practice obtaining amongst the peasantry in Russia. The following is quoted from a late report on Russian village communities:-"Labour being scarce and dear, it has been
[JUNS, 1876.
ed of all these. Sometimes it sounded like an explosion, which is one of the assigned causes, said to be caused by the spontaneous combustion of gases generated in the mountains. I do not, however, think much of this last suggestion.. Whatever they were, they lasted only during the early morning, and had entirely ceased by 8 A.M.
"It was in this village that I met with the first woman who had more than one husband. She whom I addressed very simply told me that she had four !-all brothers. I asked her how they managed, and she said that they were never at home together. One would be absent with sheep, bringing salt from Tibet; another with a consignment for disposal in the Ram Serai valley; a third attending to the cultivation of some distant outlying fields, or tending sheep on the far-off hill-side: so that all went on very amicably. The woman herself appeared to be the common drudge of all, working at household tasks and performing the cultivation at the village like the veriest slave, whilst the present husband sat against his stone wall, or on the sunny roof, smoking his pipe with all becoming dirt and dignity. These people seldom use water or change their clothes: for, as they often said, "If we bathe and take cold and get fever, who is to cure us?" The water generally is indeed cold, and even the Hindus of the hill eat and cook clothed, on account of the climate,-a practice which would not be allowed for a moment in the plains, where only the waist-cloth is retained, and that after bathing.
"Respecting domesticated animals it may be noted that it is customary to hang large tassels of worsted from holes bored in the bullocks' ears. Asses are extensively used near the junction of the Baspâ and the Satlej; and dogs are highly valued, specially the Bhútan breed.
"My tent is pitched looking out to the northeast, and before me rises, as nearly perpendicularly as a mountain can rise without being
the practice of the father to marry his sons in their childhood to young women, for the purpose of securing the services of the latter as members of the family. Boys of eight or ten are married to women of twenty-five or thirty, and it is not uncommon for a bride to carry her husband in her arms. The wife is thus at a period of decline when the husband reaches adult manhood; and it seems, too, that during the earlier years of the marriage the father too often incestuously abuses his power over the person of his daughter-in-law."-M. J. W.
