elsewhere--must tend to break down their health and
shorten their days.

The Kumaonees have been described as untruthful but honest. I must say
our experience has verified the unfavourable part of this description
more than the favourable. So far as veracity is concerned we have not
been impressed with any difference between them and other natives of
India. We think their honesty has received more credit than it deserves.
This is, at any rate, the opinion of the tea-planters with whom we have
conversed, and who have had superior opportunities for judging. They
have told us of the strict watch they have to set to guard their tea and
fruit. We found that some hill servants, whom we had greatly trusted,
had systematically robbed us. The character for honesty was, I believe,
given to them because when they set out on their periodical migration to
the plains they left their villages unguarded, and found their property
safe on their return. I suppose this resulted partly from an
unwritten--may I say?--honourable understanding, that as in their sparse
and widely-scattered population it was well-nigh impossible to guard
their goods, the rights of property should be respected; and partly from
the circumstance that there was little left behind in the villages which
could be carried away. So far as others, especially Europeans, are
concerned, this understanding to practise honesty does not hold.

We incidentally heard of no small degree of immorality among the people,
but our information is too limited to justify one in comparing them with
others in this respect. There is much that is likable among them, but
the general moral tone is undoubtedly low. Polyandry, which prevails in
some districts in the Western Himalayan range, is I believe unknown, but
polygamy is not uncommon among those who can afford it.

Cleanliness has never been considered a virtue of Highlanders. It is
not--or perhaps I should say it has not been--a characteristic of the
Highlanders of our own land. Among the Kumaonees it is notably wanting.
The loathsome disease of leprosy has long prevailed in the province,
owing to a large extent to the filthy habits of the people. To the same
cause there is every reason to believe, we have to trace the outbreak
now and then of the plague--_muha muree_, the great plague, as it is
called--which has proved very destructive. It resembles the plague which
at different times prevailed in Europe and swept away thousands. So
gr