full of intelligence and majesty, the neatness and
richness of their attire,--everything about them presents an emphatic
contrast with the peoples of inferior race, by whom they are surrounded.
They have at Lha-Ssa a governor, to whom they are immediately subject,
and whose authority is recognised by the Thibetian government. This
officer is, at the same time, the local head of the Mussulman religion;
so that his countrymen consider him, in this foreign land, at once their
pacha and their mufti. The Katchi have been established at Lha-Ssa for
several centuries, having originally abandoned their own country, in
order to escape the persecutions of a certain pacha of Cashmere, whose
despotism had become intolerable to them; and the children of these first
emigrants found themselves so well off in Thibet, that they never thought
of returning to their own country. The descendants still keep up a
correspondence with Cashmere, but the intelligence they receive thence is
little calculated to give them any desire to renounce their adopted
country. The Katchi governor, with whom we got upon very intimate terms,
told us that the Pelings of Calcutta (the English), were now the real
masters of Cashmere. "The Pelings," said he, "are the most cunning
people in the world. Little by little they are acquiring possession of
all the countries of India, but it is always rather by stratagem than by
open force. Instead of overthrowing the authorities, they cleverly
manage to get them on their side, to enlist them in their interest.
Hence it is that, in Cashmere, the saying is: The world is Allah's, the
land the Pacha's; it is the company that rules."

The Katchi are the richest merchants at Lha-Ssa. All the establishments
for the sale of linen, and other goods for personal and other use, belong
to them. They are also money-changers, and traffic in gold and silver:
hence it is that you almost always find Parsee characters on the
Thibetian coinage. Every year, some of their number proceed to Calcutta
for commercial operations, they being the only class who are permitted to
pass the frontiers to visit the English. On these occasions they are
furnished with a passport from the Tale-Lama, and a Thibetian escort
accompanies them to the foot of the Himalaya mountains. The goods,
however, which they bring from Calcutta, are of very limited extent,
consisting merely of ribands, galloons, knives, scissors, and some other
articles of cutlery