From Chitlong is about four miles to Thankot in the greater valley of Nepal. The road is very bad and rough, and conducts through forests over a mountain named Chandangiri, and nearly as difficult of ascent and descent as Chisapani. It derives its name, signifying sandal mountain, from one of the fables in the Hindu mythology, which states, that the goddess Parwati, the wife of Siva, rubbed herself with the powder of this fragrant wood while she sat on the mountain. Colonel Kirkpatrick calls this Chandraghiri, or the Mountain of the Moon. {204} On the highest part of the pass a house has been built for the accommodation of passengers. In the wooden carved work of this building are some very indecent figures, which by the natives are considered as fit ornaments, even in places erected from religious motives, as all these houses for the accommodation of travellers are. Thankot is a small town, finely supplied with wood and water. It stands on a rocky eminence at the south west corner of the valley of Nepal, in a district separated from the other parts of the plain by a low ridge of hills. On the most conspicuous part of this ridge stands Kirtipur, a considerable town. This part of the valley seems to be a good deal elevated above the portion which contains Kathmandu; and I found the heat of a spring in a small wood above Thankot to be 59½ degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer. From Thankot to Kathmandu is about seven miles over very uneven cultivated fields, with no roads but foot-paths.