THE PEOPLE
house and establishment. Their religion is Buddhism or Lamaism, and their language is a dialect of Tibetan.
By far the greater number of the inhabitants of Sikhim, however, are the Paharias, who number nearly 50,000. They have migrated from the neighbouring densely populated State of Nepal, and are slowly but surely pushing their way eastward. They are almost all Hindus by religion, with innumerable castes, the few exceptions being the tribes coming from the north-east of Nepal, who still profess Buddhism. They are on the whole a steady, industrious and thrifty people, very pushing, and eager to take up new employments, they make excellent settlers, pay their rent regularly, and give no trouble in that way. But they require a strong hand over them, and some of the castes are most litigious and quarrelsome. Many of their head men are excellent managers, thoroughly to be trusted, and will carry out anything they undertake to do to the best of their ability. In more than one case I have known Nepalese settlers in Sikhim, by dint of hard work and perseverance, rise to important positions which they have successfully filled, in marked contrast to the Lepchas, whose indolent temperament always acts as a deterrent and causes them to be outdistanced by more energetic races.
The only plainsmen from India to be found in Sikhim are a few Marwaris and men of the Bunia or shopkeeper class, who have come for trading purposes and settled under the protection of the British Raj since the expedition of 1888.
BHUTAN
The population of Bhutan, numbering, perhaps, 400,000 may be roughly divided into two, those living on the West and those living on the East of the Pele-la.
The people of the West are for the most part of Tibetan origin who came into the country centuries ago. They are of the same original stock as the Bhuteas in Sikhim, but
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