BHUTAN. Ph3'sically the Bhutias are a fine race,
and high cheekbones, but
skins
413
hardy and vigorous, with dark
dirty in
their
and persons.
habits
Their food consists of meat, chiefly pork, turnips, rice, barley-meal, and Their favourite drink is chotig, tea made from the brick-tea of China. distilled from rice or barley and millet, and marud, beer made from
fermented millet
all
intoxicating liquors.
bound round
classes are very
A
made
a cap
habiliment
and
men
a legging of broadcloth
is
attached to a
no Bhutia ever travels during and feet against the effects of the
generally of buffalo hide;
the winter without protecting his legs
snow
addicted to the use of
the waist by a thick fold of cotton cloth, or a leather belt,
forms the costume of the
shoe
much
loose woollen coat reaching to the knees,
made
of fur or
the women’s dress
is
coarse woollen cloth, completes the
a long cloak with loose sleeves.
houses of the Bhutias are of three and four stories
all
The
the floors are
and on two sides of the house is a verandah ornamented with carved work, generally painted. The Bhutias are neat joiners, and their doors, windows, and panelling are perfect in their way. No iron -work is used; the doors open on ingenious neatly boarded with deal
wooden
hinges.
The appearance
picturesque and comfortable
of the houses
— the
chimneys, which the Bhutias do not
The people nominally
is
that of Swiss chalets,
only drawback
know how
being a want of
to construct.
profess the Buddhist religion, but in reality
their religious exercises are confined to the propitiation of evil spirits,
and the mechanical recital of a few sacred sentences in their religious observances, the most remarkable circumstance is the noise with which they are accompanied. The instruments used are clarionets, sometimes formed of silver and brass, but generally of wood with reed pipes, horns, Around the cottages in the shells, cymbals, drums, and gongs. mountains the land is cleared for cultivation, and produces fair crops
of barley, wheat, buckwheat, millet, mustard,
chillies, etc. Turnips of grown they are free from fibre and remarkably sweet. The wheat and barley have a full round grain, and the climate is well adapted to the production of both European and The Bhutias lay Asiatic vegetables. Potatoes have been introduced.
excellent quality are extensively
out their fields in a series of terraces cut out of the sides of the
hills
each terrace is riveted and supported by stone embankments, someEvery field is carefully fenced with pine branches, times 20 feet high.
A complete system of irrigation protected by a stone wall. permeates the whole cultivated area of a village, the water being often brought from a long distance through stone aqueducts. The Bhutias or
do not care
to extend their cultivation, as an increased revenue is exacted in proportion to the land cultivated, but devote their whole energies to make the land yield twice what it is estimated to produce.
The language spoken by
the Bhutias
is
said to be a dialect of the
