67B REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



over 80 years of age. A luan of 70 is liekl to be very old, and I liave 

 not seen a woman of that age. The age of ])nberty is reached in the 

 males about the fifteenth year, and among the girls possibly a little 

 sooner. The women bear until at least 35. The mothers never wean 

 their babies; a child continues to suckle until another comes to take its 

 place; I have repeatedly seen children of 4 years of age walk up to 

 their mother and take her breast. Anumg the natives married to 

 Chinese infanticide is sometimes practiced, as I have been assured by 

 the husbands themselves, but as a general rule the Tibetan women are 

 good mothers, and the fathers show great fondness for their offspring. 



The most common abnormality I have noticed among Tibetan men is 

 a supplementary iinger, usually growing from the thumb, and in one 

 case from the side of the palm nearest the little finger. This is also a 

 common deformity in China. I have seen two cases of men having club 

 feet, or an imperfectly developed foot with a shortened leg. One case 

 of distortion of the spine and one of supernumerary teeth (or double 

 row of lower teeth), have also come to my notice, and Ashley Eden 

 (Eeport on the state of Bootan, p. 70) mentions three albinos in a family 

 of Tibetans in Bhutan. 



Father Desideri, Avho lived in Tibet for thirteen years (A. D. 1716- 

 1729), says that "The Tibetans are naturally gentle, but uncultivated 

 and coarse" (Markliam's Narrative of the mission of George Bogle, 

 p. 306); and Father Horacio della Penna, another missionary to that 

 country in the eighteenth century, says: 



The Tibetans, speaking as a rule, are inclined to viudictiveness; but they know 

 ■well how to dissemble, and when opportunity offers will not fail to revenge them- 

 selves. They are timid and greatly fear justice. * * * If, however, they are 

 protected by some great lord, they lay aside all fear and become arrogant and proud. 

 They are greedy of money ; * * * they are also somewhat given to lust; ** * * 

 they are addicted to habits of intoxication . * * * tliey are but slightly loyal to 

 their chiefs; * * * they are also dirty and nasty and without refinement. {Ibid, 

 p. 318.) 



Father Desgodins, who has been living in Tibet since 1856, thus 

 describes the Til)etan : 



It appears to me that the Tibetan, no matter who he may be, is essentially a slave 

 to human respect. If he believes you great, powerful, and rich, there is nothing he 

 will not do to obtain your good will, your favors, your money, or even a simple mark 

 of your approval. If he has only something to hope for, he will receive you with all 

 the signs of the most profound submission or of the most generous cordiality, accord- 

 ing to circumstances, and will make you interminable compliments, using the most 

 fulsome and the most honied expressions that the human mind has been able to invent. 

 In this line he might give points to the most accomplished fiatterer of Europe. If, 

 on the contrary, he thinks you of low station, he Avill only show you stiffness, or at 

 the most, formal, unwilling politeness. Should your fortune change, have you 

 become a beggar in his eyes, abandoned and Avithout authority, he at once turns 

 against you, treats you as a slave, takes the side of your enemies, without being 

 ashamed at the remembrance of his former protestations of devotion and friendship, 

 •without listening to the dictates of gratitude. A slave toward the great, a despot 

 to the small, whoever they may be, dutiful or treacherous, according to circum- 

 stances, looking always for some way to cheat, and lying shamelessly to attain his 

 end. In a word, naturally and essentially a false character. Such is, I think, the 

 Tibetan of the cultivated countries of the south, who considers himself much more 



