A wandering mendicant in the foreground is playing on an _ektara_, a one-stringed instrument, formed of a gourd, surmounted by peacocks’ feathers—the Paganini of the East! BARH. The scene before you represents the encampment of the Commander-in-chief at Barh, at the foot of the hills, distant about thirty miles from Simla. Here the baggage elephants, and camels, deposit their loads, a part of which are carried up the mountains by the hill men; the remainder, with the carriages, palanquins, and tents, are either sent back to the plains, or placed in _godowns_ belonging to a Simla firm at Barh. The ladies of the party are sitting in _jampāns_, ready to ascend “The Hills,” as these mountains are called, from being at the foot of the Himalaya. The _jampān_ is a sort of arm-chair, with a top and curtains to it, to afford shelter from the sun or rain; long poles are affixed to it, and it is carried by four _Paharīs_, singular-looking little black, hill fellows, harnessed between the poles after their fashion. A group of them are sitting near the _jampāns_. They are little fellows, with flat ugly faces, like the Tartar race, dressed in black woollen coarse trowsers, a blanket of the same over their shoulders, and a rope round their waists; a black greasy round leather cap on their heads, sometimes decorated all round the face with bunches of freshly gathered hill flowers. They are very honest, and very idle; moreover, most exceedingly dirty. The women are good-looking and strong. Polyandry is a common institution. Gentlemen ascend the hills either in a _jampān_ or on a _gūnth_, a hill-poncy, a most sure-footed, sagacious animal, who will carry you safely round the most dangerous places, where you have a wall of rock on the one side, and a precipice on the other. A _jumna-par_ goat, with its long silky ears, is lying on the ground near a shawl goat from Cashmere. Some men of a corps of irregular horse are in attendance on the Commander-in-Chief, and the _tom-tom wālā_, with his drum, is seated on his blanket, on which the people throw cowries, and sometimes _paisā_, small copper coins: a _tom-tom wālā_ is a constant attendant on every camp. [Illustration] SIMLA—THE CONICAL HILL. The view now before you represents the conical hill at Simla; it was taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Luard from his house, called The Craigs. Simla is about 7000 feet above the level of the sea; it is not many miles from Rampore, the chief town in the valley of the Sutledge, and is one of the favourite places of resort of Europeans during the hot season.