as that which is so remarkable amongst the
inhabitants of Switzerland and the Tyrol; indeed mountaineers in general
either have much fewer troubles than lowlanders, or take them less to
heart.

The Nepaulese, in common with most highland tribes, have strong religious
feelings, and are bigoted adherents to a faith which they would find it
somewhat difficult to define. One use to which they put their religion,
and in which they far exceed even the Roman Catholics of the Alps, is, in
making it furnish them with an almost unlimited number of holidays and
festivals: no opportunity of merrymaking is lost by the light-hearted
inhabitants of Nepaul, and in this respect they are at once
distinguishable from their more gloomy and saturnine conquerors, the
Ghorkas, who, glorying only in the art of war, look with contempt on what
they consider the frivolity of the Newars.

There can be no doubt of the warlike character of the Ghorkas, even had
not our own experience testified to the fact in a most unpleasant way.
Not only are they brave and skilful soldiers, but, for a barbarous
nation, they are wonderfully advanced in the art of fabricating the
implements of war; they cast their own ordnance, manufacture their own
muskets, shot, powder, and cartridge-boxes; in fact, every instrument or
weapon used in civilized warfare is manufactured in Nepaul, often
clumsily enough, but the mere fact of their being capable of being used,
and used with effect, is highly creditable to the ingenuity of the
Ghorkas.

The Newars are still more skilful artisans than the Ghorkas, but their
talent does not lie in the same direction. The bricks of Nepaul are
deservedly famed; whether the virtue lies in the clay of which they are
formed, or the skill with which they are made, I do not know--most
probably in both. The Newars excel also in bell-making; it is the trade
of the land; they are all bell-makers from their youth, and proofs of
their skill are exhibited hanging at the corners of pagodas, swinging
from the roofs of houses, surmounting Dagobas--in fact, the device upon a
Nepaulese banner should be a bell. In jewellery they are no less expert,
and are elaborate workmen in all metals. A species of coarse paper is
manufactured by them from the bark of a tree, which is first reduced to a
pulp and then spread over a sheet and dried.

They are as excellent agriculturists as tradesmen, and the rich soil of
the valley is not allowed by the industrio