which Tibetans twirl their prayer-wheels, and in
which the Hindus turn when they bathe in sacred
rivers.
On the birth of an infant they dispense with the
ON THE WAY
services of a midwife ; the mother always goes through
her time of trial alone, unless, which is frequently not
the case, there are other married women near by, who
can conveniently attend her. For two months after
child-birth they drink no water from the hands of the
mother, considering her to be unclean. The ceremony
of naming the child is certainly peculiar. On the fifth
day the priest appears and works himself into a religious
frenzy, and it is popularly supposed that the god takes
possession of his human frame. In the midst of his
ecstatic trance he names the child. All children have
two names, one Hindu such as Mohan Sing, Deb Sing,
&c., and the other in the aboriginal tongue, e.g., Dhare-
mia, Sistia, &c.
I t has been said that the Raj is bury their dead,*
but these men certainly nowadays practise cremation,
whatever their former practice may have been, and the
spot chosen is always on the bank of some stream.
They employ no mourning ceremonial whatever, except
that they fast on the day of death, and the next day
eat rice instead of ordinary food.
They are extremely particular as to the water they
drink, never drinking from anywhere except at the
actual source of the spring, and all river water they
refuse absolutely, fearing contamination. They do
not carry these sanitary precautions as far as their
dwelling-houses, for the smell round their abodes is
simply appalling, and in person these aborigines look
as if they had never washed in their lives. They live
in stone houses, nicely built, and have a few fields of
cultivation adjoining. They keep a few cattle, and
eke out their livelihood by fishing and trapping. They
never use a net, or a rod, to catch the fish, but always
rely upon getting them by tickling with the hand as
the fish lie concealed behind some rock. They showed
us a fish eight inches long which had just been caught.
They have never used for the destruction of big game,
bows and arrows like the Bhotias, whose national
weapons they once, were, but always rely on snares,
the common trap being a very heavy stone poised upon
sticks, which give way as soon as the animal approaches
* Cf. Atkinson’s “ Himalayan Districts,” xi.-367.
B