NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 675 



There is very little, if any, perceptible odor about the Tibetan's per- 

 son, save that which is readily traced to dirty clothes. Partial baldness 

 in both sexes is not uncommon. Their heads they keep tolerably clean by 

 frequently anointing the hair and scalp with butter, but vermin is com- 

 mon among them, especially with the women, and it is a very common 

 sight to see a number of them crouching before their houses in the sun 

 cleaning the head of a husband, a child, or a friend; all captures belong 

 to the original owner, who eats them with relish, saying, "As they 

 live on me, they can not be unclean food for me, though they might be 

 for anyone else," Washing the body is never, or hardly ever, indulged 

 in, except involuntarily when fording a stream or wiien drenched by the 

 rain.* 



The skin of the Tibetan is coarse and greasy. Its color is a light 

 brown, frequently nearly white, except where exposed to the weather, 

 when it becomes a dark brown, nearly the color of our American 

 Indians. Eosy cheeks are quite common among the yimnger women. 



The Tibetans' voices are powerful, those of the men deep; those of 

 the women full and not very shrill. Their hearing is good, and they 

 can converse freely from one side of a valley to the other, a distance 

 of fnllj^ a half a mile, without ever having to repeat phrases or jier- 

 ceptibly raise the voice. In singing their voices are pitched in a lower 

 key than is usual among Chinese or Mongols, and in their church serv- 

 ices the voices are always a deep bass. Their sight does not appear to 

 be exceptionally sharp, but I have seen few nearsighted persons among 

 them, though blindness, resulting generally from cataracts, is rather 

 common, also opthalmia, attributable in a great measure to their using 

 hats but rarely, and to the pungency of the smoke in their dwellings. 



They can endure exposure without any apparent inconvenience. In 

 the coldest weather I have seen them slip the upper part of their 

 bodies out of their sheepskin gowns to i)erforin any kind of work requir- 

 ing freedom of motion. The women do nearly all their work with the 

 the right side of the body completely exposed, and they put no clothes 

 on very small children except in the coldest weather, allowing them to 

 move about naked, or with only a pair of boots on. 



Hunger they can also endure, and they are at all times small eaters. 

 Eating a little whenever they drink their tea, they never take a hearty 

 meal, but stave off continually the pangs of hunger. Though the 

 nature of the food they use is such that they can not endure absolute 

 privation from all food for any considerable length of time, they can 

 with ease travel for long i^eriods on starvation rations. 



The average length of life is not very much shorter in Tibet than 

 among the Mongols, though it is certainly lower than among the 

 Chinese. I have seen but few old men among them, and they were not 



* Speaking of their neighbors, the Mongols, William of Eubruk remarks : " Vestes 

 nimcinam lavant quia dicunt qiiod Dens tunc irascitnr, et quod fiat tonitrua si 

 8us])endantur ad siccandum. Immo lavantes, verberant, et eis auferunt." (Itinera- 

 rium, Edit. Soc. G4og. de Paris, p. 234.) 



