The Hill-men say there is a certain stone which possesses a charm and keeps away fleas; this stone they put into their beds, and vow it keeps off the biters. My ayha tells me she borrowed the charm, and put it into her bed, the fleas were nevertheless as ravenous as ever; she says the stone has the smell of a peach.
“What are you doing?” said I to my darzī, who was one day groping about the floor with something in his hand, “Trying to find my needle with this iron-stone; there is plenty of it in the Hills.” Shortly afterwards the needle, attracted by the magnetic qualities of the iron-stone, stuck to it; and the darzī brought it to me in triumph. Sang-i-miknātīs is the native name for loadstone.
21st.—Two of my fat sheep have been stolen: an officer in the engineers has given me a fine Hill dog, by name Khobarah; he must be chained in the sheep-house.
22nd.—Another fat sheep has disappeared: according to the shepherd, carried off by an hyena,—according to my belief, sold to the butcher.
23rd.—We are blessed with a gleam of sunshine, and the man is off with his net to catch butterflies; this fine day will tempt them forth.
A Hill-man brought in a basket of fresh kajgee, walnuts; they were a novelty; we cracked them, Hill fashion, between the door and the sill, and found them excellent, sweet, and fresh.
The paharīs brought down curious-looking white stones, which they called booteah chharrā, and used as shot. According to their account these stones are found in a waterfall, and brought from Almorah. On first inspection they have the appearance of being a mineral crystallization, but on more minute examination, it will be found that the number of faces or flattened sides is irregular, some having eight, others nine, ten, or eleven faces. On splitting one open as shown in the plate entitled “[Jugunnath],” Fig. 7, which represents the two halves, a beautiful little round kernel presents itself, enclosed in the outer case. It is very probable, therefore, that they are the ripe seeds or berries of some tree or plant in the vicinity, which, falling into, or being washed by the rains into some water highly impregnated with carbonate of lime, become petrified, and entirely changed into this substance, which frequently happens under the supposed circumstances. The little flattened faces may thus be accounted for, by the pressure of the grains in their conglomerated state against one another, at the time the berries are either in a soft or ripe state; at any rate, they are now simple carbonate of lime, completely dissolving in diluted muriatic acid, with evolution of carbonic acid, and without sediment.
In the plate above mentioned (Fig. 6) the grains are represented en masse, about half their proper size. Fig. 8 represents them exactly the size of the original; one is split open, showing the centre of the rays. Fig. 7 is a grain split open, showing the beautiful little white polished berry,—if berry it be.
I have numerous specimens of leaves and branches of trees from Almorah, petrified in the waterfalls, covered with a thick white or brownish crust, through which the fibres of the leaves can be distinctly traced.
Amongst other curiosities in the Hills, I must not omit the flexible stone; Major S⸺ showed me a large specimen, which was decidedly flexible. Since I have applied myself to lithography, it appears to me that the stone we cut out of his mountain at Cloud End, Landowr, with which his house was built, had greatly the appearance of the German lithographic stone; I well remember thinking it rotten when first cut out, and finding it hardened completely on exposure to the air in ten days or a fortnight: I know not if this peculiarity belong to the lithographic stone. The latter dissolves completely in muriatic acid, and water, leaving no sediment.