mustered my party at the Great Rungeet river. I had
forty-two in all, of whom the majority were young
Lepchas, all were active and cheerful-looking fellows;
only one was goitred, and he had been a salt-trader. I
was accompanied by a guard of five Sepoys, and had a
Lepcha and Tibetan interpreter. I took but one
personal servant, a Portuguese half-caste who cooked
for me; he was a native of Calcutta, and though
hardy, patient, long-suffering, and far better tempered,
was, in other respects, very inferior to my servant of the
previous year, who, having been bred to the sea, was as
handy as he was clever; hut who, like all other natives
of the plains, grew intolerably weary of the hills, and
left me.
The first part of my route lay over Tendong, a
conspicuous feature from Doijiling, where it is known
as Mount Ararat. The Lepchas have a curious legend
of a man and woman having saved themselves on its
summit, during a flood that once deluged Sikkim. The
coincidence of this story with the English name of
Ararat suggests the probability of the legend being
fabulous hut I am positively assured that it is not soy
and that it was current amongst the Lepchas before its
English name was heard of, the latter having been
suggested from the form of its summit resembling that
given in children’s books as the resting-place of the ark.
On the route I was met by the Lama of Silokfoke
Goompa. Though a resident on the Lassoo Kajee’s
estates, he politely brought me a present, at the same
time apologising for not waiting till I had encamped,
owing to his excessive fat, which prevented his
climbing. I accepted his excuses, though well aware
that the real reason was that he wished to pay his
respects, and show his good, feeling, in private. Besides
his ordinary canonicals, he carried a tall crozier-headed
staff, and had a curious horn slung round his neck, full
pf amulets; it was short, of a transparent red colour,
and beautifully carved, and was that of the small cow
of Lhassa.
Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance;
and still possesses a mendong, with six rows of inscribed
slabs, a temple, and a Lama attached thereto ;
the latter waited on me soon after I had encamped;
but he brought no present, and I was not long kept in
suspense as to his motives. These people are poor
dissemblers; if they intend to obstruct, they do it
clumsily and hesitatingly: in this instance the Lama
first made up to my people, and, being coolly received,
kept gradually edging up to my tent-door, where, after
an awkward salute, he delivered himself with a very
bad grace of his mission, which was from the Lassoo
Kajee to stop my progress. I told him I knew nothing
of the Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed
on the following morning: he then urged the bad
state of the roads, and requested me to wait, till he
should receive orders from the R a jah ; upon which I
dismissed him.
Soon afterwards I saw twenty or thirty men rapidly
descending the rocky p a th ; they were Lepchas, with,
blue and white striped garments, bows and quivers, and
long knives gleaming in the su n ; they seemed to be
following a Lama with a scarlet handkerchief wound