and squalid.
Sometimes a florid tint about the nose and cheek-bones seems to hint at
an affection for the bottle; while their flowing or rather tangled locks,
and slovenly dress, might fairly induce the suspicion that they had but
lately parted company with it. The Newar women, however, were ladylike
in their appearance, when compared with some of the Bootya tribe with
whom I afterwards made acquaintance.

It would, perhaps, be hardly fair to these copper-coloured ladies to
judge entirely from their appearance, but, from what I could learn, it
did not belie them, except, of course, as regards their friendship for
the bottle, drunkenness being a vice which is not prevalent, though the
strictness with respect to intoxicating liquors, so remarkable amongst
the Hindoos of the plains, is by no means observable among the hill
tribes.

The dress of the men consists of a short coat, not unlike a
shooting-coat, reaching about half-way to the knees, and composed of a
coarse cotton fabric manufactured in the country, from a tree which is a
native of some of the lower valleys, but which I did not see in the
valley of Katmandu.

In the colder months they wear home-spun woollen clothes. The dress of
the women differs little from that of the men, except that the coat is
longer, resembling a dressing-gown, and a sort of bodice is generally
worn beneath it; a white shawl wrapped round the waist completes one of
the most ungraceful costumes imaginable. All the men and some of the
women are armed with the kukri, a heavy-bladed weapon or knife of
singular shape. But lest this be too unprepossessing a picture of the
Newars, or aborigines of Nepaul (for the Ghorkas are a superior and very
different race), I should remark that I had no opportunity of seeing any
of the females of the higher orders of either nation. The Ghorkas,
being, for the most part, bigoted Hindoos, are prevented by their
religion from allowing the women to appear in public. The Newars, not
fettered by any such restraint, can now boast very few noble families;
the ancient grandees of the Newar dynasty are extirpated, with the
exception of one or two of the old aristocracy, who are in the last stage
of decay. I cannot agree with Colonel Kirkpatrick (who wrote an account
of his visit to Nepaul in 1803) in thinking that, "though the Newars have
round and rather flat faces, small eyes, and low spreading noses, they
bear no resemblance to Chinese features;" on the co