Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/58

Rh for the occupation certainly took place before the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. The Magars people the lower part of the hills in Western Nepal, and are men of great bodily vigour and mental activity, but cruel and treacherous. The Gurungs are a pastoral people, addicted to arms, frequenting the alpine regions in summer. The Newars inhabit the valley of Nepal. They are peaceful agriculturists and traders, and are more advanced in the arts than the other tribes : their chiefs, of a family called Mai, having been the rulers of the country before the Gorkha conquest. The Murmis are a low caste tribe in the mountainous parts of Nepal proper. The Kirats were a war-like and enterprising people, but very rude, occupying Eastern Nepal; and the Limbus form a tribe settled in the country of the Kirats.

"When the successive Muhammadan invasions spread terror over the plains of India, and caused the destruction of many native dynasties, numerous princes and their followers took refuge, with attendant Brahmans, in the Nepal hills, and received the name of Parbatiya, or Mountain Hindus. The wild native tribes were gradually converted to Hinduism, and the chief warrior families were admitted as belonging to the Kshatriya, or Rajput caste. From them, and from the offspring of Brahmans and native women, sprang the numerous and now predominant Khas tribe of Nepal, and in the course of centuries the Khas language became a corrupt form of Hindi. The Khas were spread over the Chaubisya region, and, with the Gurungs and Magars, form the military race of Nepal, now known, from the small State which led them to conquest, as Gorkhas. In Mr. Hodgson's opinion they are by far the best soldiers in Asia, possessing love of enterprise, and confirmed military habits, combined with susceptibility to discipline.

The Newars were a more peaceful and civilized people,