The races along our North-East Border--Tibet--The Mahatmas--Nepal--Bhutan--Its geography--Its founder--Its Government--Religious rule--Analogy between Bhutan and old Japan--_Penlops_ and _Daimios_--The Tongsa _Penlop_--Reincarnation of the Shaptung Rimpoche--China's claim to Bhutan--Capture of the Maharajah of Cooch Behar--Bogle's mission--Raids and outrages--The Bhutan War of 1864-5--The Duars--The annual subsidy--Bhutan to-day--Religion--An impoverished land--Bridges--Soldiers in Bhutan--The feudal system--Administration of justice--Tyranny of officials--The Bhuttias--Ugly women--Our neighbours in Buxa--A Bhuttia festival--Archery--A banquet--A dance--A Scotch half-caste--Chunabatti--Nature of the borderland--Disappearing rivers--The Terai--Tea gardens--A planter's life--The club--Wild beasts in the path--The Indian planters--Misplaced sympathy--The tea industry--Profits and losses--Planters' salaries--Their daily life--Bhuttia raids on tea gardens--Fearless planters--An unequal fight. Along the North-East Frontier of India lie numerous States and races of which the average Britisher is very ignorant. Of late years Tibet has bulked largely in the public eye owing to international and diplomatic intrigues and our little war with it in 1904. But, previously, it was probably best known to the Man in the Street as the country from which according to the Theosophists, "the Mahatmas come from." They must all have deserted it long since; for I never met anyone who had been in Tibet who had ever heard of them there. Travellers like General Bower who had journeyed through the land from end to end, officers of the Anglo-Indian Army that made its way to Lhasa, others of my regiment who had lived in Gyantse, learned to speak the language and mixed much with the people, were all ignorant of the existence of these mysterious and supernaturally gifted beings. Nepal is best known as the country which supplies us with the popular little Gurkha soldiers. But Bhutan, which lies along our Indian border, is scarcely known even by name to the crowd. Yet, as long ago as in the days of Warren Hastings, we had diplomatic intercourse with it; and half a century has not elapsed since we were at war with the Bhutanese. Yet, to-day, there are not a dozen Englishmen who have crossed its borders.