Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/242

 W, 1875.] THE TRADITION OP THE f I OLD-DIG GTXG AXIS. gan ed in reaching T h o k. J a 1 u u g found it to be also situated upon a " large desolate plain." When be and the other Pamlits, on their return journey, left G iacauroff, a Tibetan encamp- ment on the banks of the Indus, on the 4th of September, they mot great numbers oF nomads with flocks of sheep and cattle, bat it was not until they reached a small village on the 7th of September that they saw the first signs of cul- tivation. With regard to the jonmey firom Thok-Jalung to the monastery of T a d u in , which lies on the highroad to Lass a, they were told that there were other great plains to cross. Again, when the Pandit who got to R a do kin 1#68 left that hamlet forThok- J a 1 u u g he could perceive no lofty mountain- peak on the north or east, and established the existence in this direction al i exten- sive plain, called by the Tibetans Chang- tan g, or ' the Great Plain.'* It is only in fact in the country north-east of the branch of the Indus called by then;; i gk-gi-Khambathat tin.- gold-fields mentioned above are found. And in this respect the Singh-gi-Khamba re- calls the way in which the river Kampy- linns is mentioned by J& 1 i a n. Local circumstances also explain how it was thai the Tibetan miners gave rise, at first sight. to the notion that they were animals. The origin of the name Himalaya is the same at that of Sneekoppe, Snowdon, Ben Nevis, am I Sie r ra X e v-a A a.t I) h a va 1 ft girl, like Lebanon and Mont Blanc, means White Mountain, and T h o k - J a I u ng is even higher than Mont Blanc, the miners' camp being, accord- ing to the measurements of the Pandits, 1 diove the sea-level. The Pandit who remain- ed at T h o k - J a 1 n n g from the 26th to the 31st of August 1867) states that never in any of his travels did he experience such piercing cold as at thatplace.and the director of the mines inform- ed him that in winter all the miners are dressed ice no one could live at that season without them. J Now wlnm we consider i hat the Laplanders, clothed as they were from head to foot with the skins of reindeer, appeared to Tor- • Ho&tgomeria in Jour. R. Qeng. Sac. XXXIX. pp. l."il. SCES. 208-9: low. XXXIILgf. t i'liny. B I ./ iilnuriiitwoit-SflJfiiliHisl-i. i I'r.lkrrsrh'iffrii, II. 40/; couf. K tig. des Buddha, II. 44, 45. nasns to resemble those animals, we i understand that the sight of our Tibetan miners ir winter dresa should have called np tho same idea. But moa- than this— the Tibetan features themselves are sufficient to suggest the comparison to foreigners of the Aryan race. Their noses are extremely flat, § and Pallas, after remarking that Tibetans were often met with among the Mongols and at K i a c h ta on tho bor- der of S i b e r i a, adds, u they all l>ear in their faces an almost incredible resemblance to apes."|| Add to this their extraordinary habits. " Their customary mode of saluting one another is to loll out the tongue, grin, nod, and bci ear; "^f and all, from the highest to the lowest, when they wish to sleep "draw their knees close up to their heads, and rest on their knees and elbows. . . . The Tibetans employed in La dak by the Survey, though provided with tents, universally slept in the way described above, arranging themselves in a circle round the tent." * Fancy a few hundred miners, muf- fled in furs, lying asleep in this posture ! But why should these men who look like animals suggest the idea of ants in particular ? The Pandit to whom we owe our information about T h ii k-JuUng had remarked on his first journey into Eastern Tibet that tho wind is everywhere very strong on the high Tibetan plateaux ;t and with regard to the piercing cold which prevails at T h o k - J a 1 un g in summer, he observes that it is tar rather to be attributed to tho icy winds which constantly blow there than to its elevation above the sea. According- ly tho miners do not merely remain underground while at work, J but their small black tents, ' are made of a felt-like material manufac- tured from the hair of the Y a k, are Set in a series of pits with steps leading down into them. " The tents of the diggers," says the Pandit, "are always pitched in pits some seven or eight feet below the surface of the ground. to keep nut the wind.'" § Tho account received by Herodotus (111. 102) of the gold ants, that "they made themselves subterranean dwellings," is therefore literally applicable to r H 1. 192; Un, , IL 866, 818 • 1 XXXIX. LS5. VXXVIIi. i.-,l Z ' »n Bearing Thok- J&l nog <lio Pandit Lean! their songs before ha could see them. § J XXXiX. 164