Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/218

 various devices, outlined with chalk. In the north-west the houses are built of mud, with flat roofs, also covered with mud, and with slope enough to run the rain off.

The Kyburies follow the example of the swallow, and scoop out their houses out of the brow of the hill independent of masonry or carpentry, and ensured against fire.

12. CLOTHING.—The dress worn by the natives is principally cotton, and generally white. In winter, warmer fabrics of quilted cotton are worn, and by the more wealthy, Cashmere shawls and English broadcloth. The head-dress is an ample turban of cloth; their shoes are mere slippers, generally embroidered, and worn without socks. Their slippers they invariably leave at the door, for it would be considered as disrespectful to enter with their shoes on, as with their turban off.

The hill tribes wear fabrics made of hemp,or of sheep's wool, or of the softer wool of the Cashmere goat; the Punjaubees of camel's hair, or tanned sheep skin, with the wool on it.

The dress is at all seasons very scanty, in summer merely nominal, and in winter quite inadequate to protect them against the cold, so much so, that a European would perish of cold if obliged to wear the clothing they wear.

Their bedding is equally scanty, and the practice of the common orders is to spread a mat on