The scene before you represents the encampment of the Commander-in-chief
at Barh, at the foot of the hills, distant about thirty miles from
Simla. Here the baggage elephants, and camels, deposit their loads, a
part of which are carried up the mountains by the hill men; the
remainder, with the carriages, palanquins, and tents, are either sent
back to the plains, or placed in _godowns_ belonging to a Simla firm at
Barh. The ladies of the party are sitting in _jampāns_, ready to ascend
“The Hills,” as these mountains are called, from being at the foot of
the Himalaya. The _jampān_ is a sort of arm-chair, with a top and
curtains to it, to afford shelter from the sun or rain; long poles are
affixed to it, and it is carried by four _Paharīs_, singular-looking
little black, hill fellows, harnessed between the poles after their
fashion. A group of them are sitting near the _jampāns_. They are little
fellows, with flat ugly faces, like the Tartar race, dressed in black
woollen coarse trowsers, a blanket of the same over their shoulders, and
a rope round their waists; a black greasy round leather cap on their
heads, sometimes decorated all round the face with bunches of freshly
gathered hill flowers. They are very honest, and very idle; moreover,
most exceedingly dirty. The women are good-looking and strong. Polyandry
is a common institution. Gentlemen ascend the hills either in a _jampān_
or on a _gūnth_, a hill-poncy, a most sure-footed, sagacious animal, who
will carry you safely round the most dangerous places, where you have a
wall of rock on the one side, and a precipice on the other. A
_jumna-par_ goat, with its long silky ears, is lying on the ground near
a shawl goat from Cashmere. Some men of a corps of irregular horse are
in attendance on the Commander-in-Chief, and the _tom-tom wālā_, with
his drum, is seated on his blanket, on which the people throw cowries,
and sometimes _paisā_, small copper coins: a _tom-tom wālā_ is a
constant attendant on every camp.
[Illustration]