by the sons, are often met with. A son can at any
time insist on partition. Their domestic life is being
brought more and more under the influence of
Hinduism.
On the fifth day after childbirth Pancholi is performed,
the woman and child being allowed to occupy
a separate room or house, but no one is permitted to
touch them. Should any one even by accident touch
them the only purification is by sprinkling cow’s urine
on his own body and tasting the urine, a disgusting
practice which is strictly in accordance with orthodox
Hinduism. On the eleventh day Namkaran, or “ name-
giving,” takes place. On this day Brahmans purify the
woman and the child and they may then enter the house
and touch wrater. A horoscope is prepared according to
the rules of the Hindu horoscope scriptures. When
the first two or three children in a family have died
young the right nostril of the new-born child is pierced,
or the child is given to a fakir, who shortly after returns
it. When the first born has survived, but others
have died in early youth, a large piece of sugar is broken
upon the back of the first born, so that the newly born
¡infant may start its young life with the bad luck of the
past broken. A child born under certain signs of the
Zodiac is handed over to some third person, with whom
it remains up till its tenth or eleventh year, the parents
not seeing its face, till then.
The rite of the sacred thread takes place between
the ages of eight and twelve years. However, the
sacred thread is not as a rule put on at this ceremony;
in fact, only a few Bhotias wear the thread, the reason
being that the attendant obligation of bathing daily
is so irksome in the cold journeys to Tibet that few
care to incur the obligation. However, after the
Janti Pass behind, not visible Untadhura Pass Approach to the Pass
Descent to Girthi (River. Topidunga behind the knoll in the hollow
z
THE UNTADHURA PASS (17,590 f t .) PROM THE KUNGR PASS (17,000 f t .)
NOTE THE GRADUAL APPROACH TO THE UNTADHURA PASS, A CONTRAST TO THE DESCENT INTO A SHEER ABYSS FR'