and the yards were full of animals familiar to the eye
hut not to the ear. The cows of Sikkim, though
generally resembling the English in stature, form, and
colour, have humps, and grunt rather than low; and
the cocks wake the morning with a prolonged howling
screech, instead of the shrill crow of chanticleer.
Hence we descended north-west to the Great Run-
geet, opposite Tassiding; which is one of the oldest
monastic establishments in Sikkim, and one we were
very anxious to visit. The descent lay through a forest
of tropical trees, where small palms, vines, peppers,
screw-pine, wild plantain, and Pothos, were interlaced in
an impenetrable jungle, and air-plants clothed the trees.
IMPLEMENTS USED IN BOODHIST TEMPLES.
Praying cylinder in sta n d ; another to be carried in the hand ; cymbals; be ll;
brass c u p ; three trumpets; conch; dorje.
CHAPTER XIV.
Tassiding, view of and from—Funereal cypress—Camp at Sunnook—Hot
vapours—Lama’s house—Temples, decorations, altars, idols, general
effect— Chaits — Date of erection — Plundered by Grhorkas—Cross
Ratong—Ascend to Pemiongchi—Pemiongchi, view from—Vegetation—
Temple, decorations, &c.—Former capital of Sikkim—History
of Sikkim — Nightingales — Campbell departs— Tchonpong—-Edge-
worthia—Cross Rungbee and Ratong—Yoksun—Walnuts—View—
Funereal cypresses—Doobdi—Gigantic cypresses—Temples—Snowfall—
Sikkim, &c.—Toys.
T a s s id in g hill is the steep conical termination of a
long spur from a fir-clad shoulder of Kinchinjunga,
called Powhungri: it divides the Great Rungeet from
its main feeder, the Ratong, which rises from the south
face of Kinchin. We crossed the former by a bridge
formed of two bamboo stems, slung by canes from two
parallel arches of stout branches lashed together.
The ascent was up a very steep, dry, zigzag path,
amongst many tropical plants, especially the “ Tukla ”
(Rottlera tinctoria), a plant which yields a brown dye.
The top was a flat, covered with temples, chaits, and
mendongs of the most picturesque forms and in elegant
groups, and fringed with brushwood, wild plantains,
small palms, and apple-trees. Here I saw for the first
time the funereal cypress, of which some very old trees
o 3