An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of GorkhaHamilton, Francis
History
An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha
Hamilton, Francis
Nepal -- Description and travel; Nepal -- History
musk, and Thibet bull-tails, (Chaungris.)
Farther down, the Kankayi formed the boundary between the Kirats and
Sikim, until it reached the plain, the whole of which, as far as the
Mahananda, belonged to the Vijaypur Rajas, while all the low hills
belonged to Sikim. These low hills are not represented in the map,
although they are of very considerable size, such as the greater part of
the mountains of Scotland or Wales; but, near Emodus, these appear like
molehills. The hilly country, I am told by the traders, commences at
what they call six coses north from Sannyasikata, and extends about
eighteen coses farther to Siumali, another mart, which the low country
people name Dimali.
The hills south of Dimali are thinly inhabited by the Mech or Dimali, who
cultivate cotton, rice, and other articles, in the same manner as the
Garos, which will be described in my account of Asam. This kind of
country extends from the Kankayi to the Tista, everywhere, probably,
about the same width; but the coses, in all likelihood, are very short,
twelve of them being reckoned a day’s journey, and, in such roads, twelve
miles is a long journey, and will give no great horizontal distance.
Between the Mahananda and Tista the Sikim Raja possessed a low tract,
four or five coses wide, which is inhabited by Koch, and cultivated with
the plough. The chief place in it is Dabi, on the east bank of the
Mahananda. This part is not noticed in the Lama’s map.
Siumali, or Dimali, according to the Bengalese, is a custom-house on the
east side of the Bala kongyar river, but the Lama places it on the west,
and is probably more correct, the Bengalese concerning such points being
uncommonly stupid. At this custom-house or mart is a Lapcha collector,
appointed by Yu-kang-ta. He has with him four Bengalese writers, to
assist him in collecting the duties. The custom-house consists of a
square surrounded by buildings, in which the traders and their
commodities are received, for there is no house near, except those of the
collector and his assistants. The traders from the low country take up
salt, tobacco, cotton cloth, goats, fowls, swine, iron, and occasionally
a little coral, and broad cloth. They bring back Indian madder,
(Manjit,) cotton, beeswax, blankets, horses, musk, bull-tails,
(Chaungris,) Chinese flowered silk, (Devang,) and rhinoceroses horns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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