In Western Nepal the hair is worn in many little plaits festooned on both sides of the forehead, and a head-cover, white, yellow, or red, such as is seen in India among Hindoo women, is usually worn.
The women have comparative freedom, and [[50]]seldom are they seen completely veiled. Sati or suttee, the widow’s self-sacrifice by throwing herself upon the flames which have cremated her dead husband, is now forbidden by law in Nepal. It is, nevertheless, indulged in to some extent in districts far away from the capital.
Nepal is principally known to English people as the country from which, by a special agreement, we draw recruits for our Gurkha regiments. It should, nevertheless, be borne in mind that not all people living in Nepal are by any means Gurkhas—far from it. We find in Nepal a great variety of types—some pure enough, others distinct mixtures of two or more races.
The Gurkha district proper lies in the north-easterly portion of the Gandak basin, the chief city being Gurkha, some fifty-four or fifty-five miles to the west of the Nepalese capital, Katmandu.
Formerly Nepal’s sovereignty extended over Kumaon, which we have already traversed, as far as the Sutlej River. The Nepal kingdom, as it stands now, is an elongated tract of country—mostly mountainous—some 500 miles in length, and less than 150 miles in breadth at its widest points. As everybody knows, it is situated on the southern slopes of the central Himahlyan range, [[51]]and borders with Tibet on the north, Kumaon (North-West Provinces) to the west, the Kali River, as we know, forming the boundary; the North-West Province and Bengal to the south, and Sikkim to the east.
Nepal is divided into three natural zones by high ranges with peaks rising from 25,000 to 28,000 feet, these ridges shooting off southwards from the main Himahlyan range. The eastern zone is drained by the Kosi River, the central by the Gandak, and the Western by the Gogra. To the above should be added what is called the Terai and the thickly-populated Nepal Valley, which, geographically, must be classed separately. Formerly Nepal was divided into twenty-four principalities in addition to the Gurkha kingdom, but since the invasion by the latter of the entire country they have been divided into five provinces—viz. Gurkha, Malibam, Palpa, Pokra, and Khachi.
In the space at my disposal I cannot enter into the history nor go into a detailed description of the many tribes which inhabit Nepal, but generally speaking, in the aboriginal stock a Mongolian origin is evident, particularly in the population of the central zone, where recent Tibetan influence is marked; but this is not the case with the [[52]]inhabitants of the lower region, who seem to have descended partly from a mixture of an earlier Tibetan and Aryan source. Perhaps among the most prominent aboriginal tribes we should mention the Magars, Gurungs, Newars, Sunwars, the Khambas or Khambus, and Yakhas (the latter two closely resembling Rais), the Yakthumbas, Murmis, and Lepchas. Then in the forests of Western Nepal we find to this day wild tribes of Chepangs and Kasundas.
A Nepalese Lady
In the Terai district live the Tarus, a servile and ill-shaped people of no great strength of character; in the eastern zone we have Limbus, a name which practically includes Kirantis, Ekas, and Rais—a people of apparently Tibetan origin, flat-faced, beardless, and with long unplaited hair, who wear wide trousers and a short jacket instead of the long coat of the Lepchas.