Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/288

280 are few and simple; their garments are woven from the wool of their own sheep, previously spun by themselves. Both men and women spin very deftly with the spindle alone.

We first came across some of the natives of this valley in 1878, at a time when we were snowed up for a week at a height of 15,000 feet above the sea, and not far below the summit of the Bara Lacha. On that occasion some sixteen or eighteen of them belonging to the musician class had been caught in a severe snow-storm on this mountain. Several tiny children were with them. About half the party had become snow-blind, and all were much exhausted. Fortunately we were able to give them some flour, &c., and thus supply their immediate necessities. In order to show their gratitude, the following morning some of these poor people came with their instruments, and accompanied the children as they danced barefooted on the snow in front of our tent. They all looked as merry and light-hearted as possible, notwithstanding the hardships they had gone through and were still enduring. Their provisions were at an end, and no more grain could be obtained without a further march of thirty miles. These people, both in type and feature, were totally different to any we had hitherto seen. It caused us to have a lingering desire to see and know more of them and their surroundings. We were unable to gratify it then, but three years later we once more found ourselves on the threshold of that portion of the Himalayas, and determined to follow the Satlej valley as far as possible, and make our way through Spiti to Lahoul. We accomplished it, though the route was not an easy one. We were repaid by seeing the singular geological formations in the Spiti valley, and visiting its inhabitants at home. In Spiti, as well as well as in Ladakh, a large proportion of the male population are Lamas, or Buddhist monks. The inhabitants of these two districts or provinces are somewhat similar in disposition; both are light-hearted, and in both the men and women mix freely together. The majority of the men in Spiti are either blacksmiths or musicians. The latter are assisted by their wives and children. A good many wander away from their own country for a time; they occasionally go even as far south as Delhi. The men play a kind of clarionette, the women a tambourine, and the children dance to their