702 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



ridge pole supported at each end by vertical posts. These are the only 

 posts used for holding up the tent. The roof is stretched by cords 

 whicli are fastened outside to the sides and corners, and which, passing 

 over short ])oles some distance from the tent, are pegged to the ground. 

 The lower edge of the tent is held down by iron pins or by horns of the 

 Antilope Hodgson i. Hue most felicitously compares these tents to huge 

 black spiders with long thin legs, their bodies resting upon the ground. 

 Sometimes to keep off the wind and snow the inmates build a low wall 

 of mud and stones, or else of dry dung, around the outsule of the tent, 

 or, when large enough, inside of it; but they do not frequently resort 

 to this ex])edient m the Kokonor section, where there is but little snow. 



In the center of the tent is a long, luurow stove made of mud and 

 stones, with a fireplace in one end and a flue passing along its whole 

 length, so that several pots may be kept boiling at the same time. 

 These stoves, in which only manure is burnt, have sufficient draft to 

 render the use of bellows needless, and are altogether a most ingenious 

 contrivance (see Diary of a Journey, etc., p. 123). Around the walls of 

 the tents are piled up leather bags in which the occupants keep their 

 food; also saddles, pieces of felt, and innumerable odds and ends, of 

 which only the owner knows the use and value. A small stone or birch- 

 wood mortar for pounding tea, a wooden tea churn about 2 feet high — 

 made of a hollowed log and hooi)ed with wood (i>l. 14, fig. 9). or out of 

 a joint of bamboo, which are, in some parts, used also to churn butter 

 in — a few small and very dirty wooden milk pails with handles of plaited 

 yak hair ( see Diary of a Journey, etc., p. 204), a log or two of wood roughly 

 squared, and which take the place of tables, and a small quern are the 

 principal articles of furniture in these "black tents." 



Food.— The food of the tent-dwelling Tibetans consists principally of 

 tea and parched barley or tsamha; the barley they buy from the agri- 

 cultural Tibetans in exchange for butter, hides, or wool. The prepara- 

 tion of tsamha is not ditticult. The grain is parched in a pan and 

 winnowed, when most of the husk falls oft"; after this it is ground in a 

 small quern, when it is ready for use. The flavor of tsamba depends 

 on the browning or roasting of the grain, and on the fineness of the 

 meal. When it is too fine it is not considered good, nor is it liked 

 when it is ground in a large water mill, altliough large quantities of it 

 are prepared by the Chinese for the Kokonor Tibetans in this way. 

 The Museum has several samples of tsamba. The meal Avhen ready for 

 use is kept in small bags {tsam kuJi), some of cloth, others of red 

 leather, the lower part of the bag being sometimes covered with mar- 

 mot or leopard skin {i)l. 14, fig. 4). The other articles of diet of these 

 people are mutton and, occasionally, game, sour milk (sho or taral), 

 granulated cheese {chura), cream cheese (jrima), the root of the poten- 

 tilla anserina {chotmia), and, occasionally, vermicelli (hua-mien) and 

 wheaten cakes [pale or Icore). (See also Diary of a Journey, etc., pp. 

 239, 274, and 278.) 



