708 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



the only drawback is a want of cbimneys; but the Bootanese do not 

 know how to construct these, and the smoke linds its way out as best 

 it can." (Ashley Eden, Report on the State of Bootan, p. 121.) 



Tibetan houses are lit by means of small lamps {mar me or zumar) filled 

 with butter in which a little cotton wick is stuck. Sometimes this 

 lamp is of brass or copper and is about 3J inches high. Lamps of the 

 same pattern are used on altars in temples, where one will frequently 

 see long rows of them, several hundred in number, burning before the 

 sacred images. Other lamps are but small earthenware saucers or cups, 

 in design similar to the brass ones. Besides this mode of lighting the 

 house the only other Avhich I have seen consisted in chips of pitch 

 pine burnt on a flat stone, put in the middle of the room. As a general 

 rule, Tibetans go to sleep as soon as it becomes dark, and in many houses 

 there are not even to be fouiid the primitive lamps above described. 



The kettles used iu Tibetan households, whether it be among tent 

 dwellers or people living in houses, are the same; they are usually 

 rather flat and thin so that they can be easily heated by a dry dung 

 fire, as dung is the only kind of fuel available in the greater part of the 

 country. These kettles, several of which are in the Museum collections, 

 vary in size from 8 to 10 inches in diameter to 24 inches or even more. 

 The Shigatse kettles, which are all tai>ering from the middle toward 

 the bottom so as to fit in the holes on the cooking stoves, are frequently 

 of very large dimensions in the houses of the rich and in lamaseries. 

 I have seen some over 2 feet in diameter. The rounded form is in 

 general use in Mongolia, northern and eastern Tibet, though in the two 

 latter countries it is usually without handles. Most of the copper ket- 

 tles in use iu eastern Tibet, Bat'ang, Lit'ang, etc., are made in China 

 in the Chieu-cli'ang (iu southwest Ssu-ch'uan). Those used in the 

 Kokonor and adjacent countries are also made by the Chinese of Hsi- 

 ning and Sung-p'an (see Diary of a Journey, etc., p. 96). 



In some parts of the country near Ladak, and which are inhabited by 

 tent dwellers, large stone vessels are also in use. In the report of 

 Nain Singh's journey of 1873, when speaking of the people inhabiting 

 the tablelands in northwest Tibet, it is said — 



At the permaueut cauii)S tliey had large caldrous, generally made of atone; iu 

 these they used to make a very weak soup, into which they threw a handful of flour. 

 At their smaller camps they cook in smaller vessels made of stone or copper, both 

 of which are imported from Ladakh. All articles of copper or iron are very much 

 valued. * * * (Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc, xlvii, p. 93 ; Couf. \Vm. Moorcroft, Travels, 

 I, p. 397.) 



Among the other household utensils rei)resented in the Museum col- 

 lections are small birch bark pails, in use wherever the tree is found 

 growing, iu northwest Kan-su, in Bat'ang and Sikkim, and closely 

 resembling those made by the Ainu. There are also small, round 

 wooden boxes with tops, turned by the Chinese in Yiiu-nan, and used to 

 keep salt or red pepper {latze) in, brass ladles, and bellows made of 



