passes, which could be, and have been, rendered
impregnable by a handful of guerillas, it is not
surprising that Nepal can lay claim to being a
State which has been least affected in all India
by modern Europeanization. By this it must
not be understood that Nepal has not taken
advantage of the many improvements that an
enlightened age has demonstrated as being
beneficial. Its excellent system of water-supply, and the resultant decrease of the
cholera scourge, is only one of a number of
well-conceived schemes which a progressive
administration has carried out for the welfare
of its people. But this aspect of the country,
however interesting, is outside the sphere of a
work which proposes to deal mainly with its
artistic and picturesque features.
The foregoing brief sketch of the country endeavours to depict Nepal as a great corrugation of mountain ranges, with a narrow strip of cultivated land where these mountains slope down to the plains. This represents a general bird's-eye view of the State, but if it were possible to actually regard it from this imaginary height, in the confusing array of
