Lepcha

The Lepcha is an arrant coward, but a born naturalist, and has a name for every shrub and plant in Sikkim.

The sting produces violent inflammation, and to punish a child with mealum-ma is the severest Lepcha threat.

The colonel informed me that the Lepcha language is very copious, expressive and beautiful, abounding largely in metaphor.

He spoke the Lepcha dialect with an indescribable softening of the gutturals.