ablution every day, so as to secure the opium adhering to all parts of his person. The water is evaporated, leaving the drug behind. The opium for home consumption is given out to licensed dealers, but before it reaches the consumers it is adulterated in the proportion of thirty parts of foreign substances to one of the pure gum. From Patna we float down the river for a hundred miles, past Monghyr, the Birmingham of India, until we reach the mouth of the Cosi river, which comes sweeping directly down from the snow-clad Himalayas, whither we are bound. Here we abandon the river, and take our way by palkee, due north for the mountains, whose white summits, 170 miles distant, are visible low down in the horizon. In due time we reach the outposts of the great Himalayan range, which, clothed with verdure, spring grandly up from the parched plain. They form huge confused masses toward the north, flinging great spurs upon either hand far out into the plain. Between these spurs lie close, damp valleys, smothered in the rank luxuriance of a tropical forest. Torrents dash foaming down the slopes, their position indicated by clouds of spray floating above the tree tops. Far away to the south the plain stretches like a sea, overhung by vapors wafted from the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles distant. These clouds discharge no moistture upon the plain; but no sooner do they come in contact with the flanks of the hills than they are condensed, and descend into the valleys in a perpetual drizzle; or, still more condensed by the greater cold of the higher summits, they fall in showers of heavy rain, which feeds the torrents that rush down the valleys, and find their way to the ocean, whence the waters are again exhaled, borne across the plains, again collected and conveyed to the ocean, in perpetual and gigantic interchange. The path winds through ravines filled with dense jungle, peopled with great ants and leeches innumerable, and vocal with the ceaseless hum of the shrill cicada. Elephants, tigers, leopards, wild boars, and rhinoceroses inhabit these jungles, though in no great numbers. The paths trodden through the forests by the elephants are the most available roads. At last our party reach Dorjiling, in the Sikkim territory, a place purchased by the English Government as a sanatory station where the Europeans, wasted by the heats of the low country, may re cruit their enfeebled constitutions, in a climate bearing some likeness to that of their native land. It lies, at an elevation of some 7000 feet, on the sharp spur of a mountain whose wooded sides slope down to the river bottoms on either hand. Here is presented the most magnificent mountain prospect in the world. A fourth of the whole circuit of the horizon is bounded by a line of perpetual snow. Peak after peak flings its great summit up into the air, to an elevation of more than five miles, Central, and supreme over all, at a distance of five-and-forty miles, towers Kinchin-junga, the loftiest mountain on the globe. Its white summit reaches nearer the moon by five hundred feet than any other spot upon which the sun shines. It is two and a half miles higher than Mont Blanc, "the monarch of hills:" eight thousand feet higher than the foot of man or beast has ever climbed, or than the strong pinions of the condor have ever borne him through the thin atmosphere. At Dorjiling our naturalist spent the months of the rainy season, busily engaged in collecting and preserving his specimens in natural history. We leave him to his chosen tasks, and occupy ourselves with studying the new forms of social life that present themselves in this wild region. Foremost among the population are the Lepchas, the aboriginal people of the mountains, a quiet, peaceable, diminutive race. They have a LEPCHA GIRL AND BOODHIST LAMA. dim tradition of the deluge, from which they say they use, however, for no offensive purposes. It a couple of their ancestors managed to save them- is called "ban," and serves, nevertheless, a variselves by climbing one of the lofty peaks in their ety of useful purposes, among which may be mencountry. A few hundred years ago they were tioned those of plow, tooth-pick, table-knife, hamvisited by missionaries from Thibet, who convert- mer, and hatchet. They also carry a bow slung ed them to Boodhism, taught them to plait their over their shoulders, and a quiver full of poisonhair into pigtails, and sundry other things equally ed arrows. As for food, it would be difficult to edifying. They are wonderfully patient and good- point out any thing in the animal or vegetable humored, remarkably honest and trustworthy, but kingdom which they do not eat. Nothing comes greatly given to laziness, and abominably filthy amiss to them, from a mushroom to an elephant, in their persons. "In this rainy climate," re- though rice is the staple article of ordinary conmarks the Doctor very philosophically, "they are sumption. They are capital woodsmen, and are supportable out of doors." They are fond of or- invaluable as assistants to the tourist. Two or naments, which together with their pigtails con- three of them, with no other implement than their stitute the joy and pride of their lives. The most knives, will in the space of a couple of hours delicate compliment which a Lepcha damsel can knock up a very comfortable hut, having a waterpay to one of her male friends is to steal up softly tight roof of bamboo thatch, a table, bedstead, behind him, unplait his long queue, smooth out its and seats. Their ideas upon the subject of religtangled hairs, free it from a portion of its swarm-ion are rather cloudy. They believe most devoutly ing inhabitants, and braid it again into a nice plait. As their pigtails constitute the main feature of their personal attractions, the fairer sex are endowed with a double portion, wearing two tails, instead of the single one with which their masculine companions content themselves. They have one inexcusable habit; this is, that as they grow old they become most intolerably ugly. in spirits, both good and bad: but as the former class are sure to do them no harm, they pay little heed to them; but are very anxious to keep on good terms with the evil ones. Though they are but half-converted Boodhists, after all, they manifest the deepest reverence for the Lamas or priests of Boodh, while they also maintain in comfort their own native priests, half mounteThe dress of the Lepchas consists in great part banks and half sorcerers, who go about the counof a single wide garment wrapped loosely about try in harlequin attire, blessing, cursing, begging, the body. This is for ordinary weather; in the carrying messages, and performing all the small winter they add an outer garment with sleeves. offices and petty knaveries pertaining to their They usually go bareheaded; but when the Lep-wandering way of life. They sometimes carry cha assumes a hat it is of dimensions ample enough to make full amends for the unfrequency of its use. Its broad brim of bamboo-leaves answers a capital purpose as an umbrella in rainy weather, at which season indeed it is generally worn. The males It is no very easy matter to procure permission carry a long heavy knife in their girdles, which to travel through these mountains. The country VOL. IX.-No. 53.-QQ on a petty traffic in addition to their legitimate professional avocations. One whom we encountered dealt in teapots of red clay, sheep, and puppies. being, of our explorer. The dexterous Lepchas in a very short time construct a table and bedstead of bamboo. A candle enclosed in a glass shade, to keep off the insects and preserve the flame from the wind, affords light by which we write up the journal and notes of the day. Meanwhile the attendants are preparing the dinner under the shade of some tree or rock. Fatigue and a hot dinner-even though none of the best -are capital opiates, and sleep comes without being summoned. The vegetation presents a commingling of the productions of temperate and tropical climates. Oranges and maize, the broad-leafed banana and purple buckwheat, sugar cane and barley, grow in close juxtaposition. One of the most serviceable plants of the Himalayas is the bamboo. There is no end to the uses to which the different species are applied. The young shoots of one kind are eaten as salad; the seeds of another supply a substitute for bread, and when fermented produce a slightly intoxicating drink, which constitutes the favorite "tipple" of the country; while its broad leaves furnish the material of a water-tight thatch. Cut into splints it furnishes the means of constructing tables and furniture. Another species grows in the form of long ropelike cables, from which are formed the slight suspension bridges which span the foaming torrents that come dashing down the ravines. Two of these canes are placed parallel to each other, their extremities firmly lashed to the rocks or trees on either bank. Loops of slender vines are suspended from these, answering the purpose of chains to uphold the roadway, which consists merely of one or sometimes two canes. A European needs steady nerves to enable him to traverse one of these swaying structures, over which the agile Lepcha walks steadily bearing a load of a hundred and a half. Climbing and parasitical plants abound in the dark valleys. Some coil serpent-like around the trees, smothering them in their close embrace; while others throw out aerial roots like the arms of a huge centipede, with which they grasp the trunks of the trees, and thus climb to their very tops. At first sight one can scarcely believe that one of these parasites is any thing other than some huge reptile making its way up the tree. Advancing further among the mountains, the character of the population gradually changes. The diminutive Lepchas are replaced by the Thibetans, a dark, square-built, muscular race of men, with broad Mongolian faces, wide mouths, flat noses, high cheek bones, low foreheads, and little twinkling eyes with the exterior corners turned upward. Every vestige of hair is carefully removed from their faces with a pair of tweezers, which form a part of their equipment as indispensable as a pair of razors to a European traveler before the advent of the mustache movement. Their natural color is scarcely darker than our own, but filth, smoke, and constant exposure to the most rigorous climate upon the globe soon effaces every vestige of their rosy complexion. They wear loose blanket robes girt A HIMALAYAN CLIMBING PLANT. side of the great Himalayan It is difficult to conceive the of salt which finds its way over these mountains. Before reaching the first village on the southern side, it must make a circuit of one-third of the distance around the great peak of Kinchin-junga. It is evident that the most direct route is that which about the waist with a leathern belt, which serves | amount of labor expended in conveying every pound as a repository for their pipes made of iron or brass, their tobacco-pouch, knife, chop-sticks, tinder box, tweezers, and sundry other implements. They are vastly good-humored, and when parties of them encounter upon the road, they go through a succession of ceremonious salutes which one can never see without an explosion of inextinguishable laughter. The ceremony begins by each running the tongue to its full extent from his leathery jaws; then comes a profusion of nods and grins, expressive of the height of amity and good-will; and the performance closes by each party scratching his ear. They have learned that this fashion of salutation strikes strangers as somewhat ludicrous; and when they encounter them the mode of greeting undergoes a variation. First they bring the hand up to the eye, then prostrate themselves to the earth, bumping the forehead three times upon the ground; when they rise from this posture of humiliation they invariably put in a claim for bucksheesh, which is always most acceptable when presented in the shape of tobacco or snuff. These Thibetans are employed in conveying salt from the mines in Thibet, on the northern THIBET MASTIFF are gayly painted and ornamented with poles, from which streamers float in the sharp mountain breeze. You might almost suppose that a fleet of Noah's arks, as that vessel is represented in old Dutch Bibles, had somehow got stranded among the mountains. The buildings are formed of pine planks set upright, the interstices being filled with compost. The roofs are low pitched, covered with shingles, loaded with large stones to keep them from blowing away. A narrow slit, closed with a shutter, answers the purpose of a window. As we pass through the narrow streets groups of swarthy, blear-eyed Thibetans salute us with their deferential kotowing. By way of public buildings there are a number of manis, square-roofed temples containing rows of praying cylinders, five or six feet high, gaudily painted, some turned by hand, others by water; and mendongs, blank walls, upon which are painted the universal Bhoodist formula, Om Mani Padmi om-"Hail to him of the lotus flower and the jewel." keeps nearest to the summit; avoiding the de- | to age been loosened from the heights around. scent of the valleys which radiate in every direc- The houses creep up the mountain side. They tion. The actual distance traveled is not more than fifty miles in a straight line, but to accomplish this at least a hundred and fifty miles must be traversed, involving an amount of labor which would accomplish at least twice as far over tolerable roads. So that in effect the salt is conveyed on the backs of men and animals a distance of fully three hundred miles before reaching the nearest point of the country where it is to be consumed. This occupies under the most favorable circumstances ten days, making no allowance for any interval of rest. After the first day the path in no case descends lower than 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, and at least four passes cov ered with perpetual snow are to be traversed, all of which attain an altitude of more than 15,000 feet, as high as the summit of Mont Blanc, while one, the Kanglachen Pass, is 16,500 feet above the sea. Perhaps no better idea can be formed of the gigantic scale upon which Nature has here wrought, than by comparing the Himalayas with the Alps. The circuit of Mont Blanc may be accomplished in four days, while at least a month must be occupied in making that of Kinchinjunga. By way of specimen of life in the Himalayas, let us look at one of the villages of the mountains. It shall be that of Wallanchoon, in the kingdom of Nepaul. It stands ten thousand feet and more above the level of the sea, say half a mile above the convent of Saint Bernard. The few trees which find rooting upon the steep mountain sides look gaunt and haggard; long streamers of lichen, bleached by exposure to sun and wind, float from the naked branches. The village lies in a plain sown over with huge boulders that have from age High above the level of the dwellings a long low convent building sits perched. Few things are more noticeable than the frequency of temples and monasteries all through the mountains. The principal establishment is at Tassiding, upon a spur which shoots down from the flanks of Kinchin-junga. Here are three temples, with the corresponding houses for the Lamas. They are singular-looking structures, built of huge stones, the walls sloping upward from their base upon the outside, though they are perpendicular within. The roof is low and thickly thatched, projecting eight or ten feet beyond the walls. A ladder upon the outside gives access to a small |