NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 727 



Sarat Chandra Das, iu his paper on Marriage Customs of Tibet, says 

 (quotiug Crooke's Notes aud Queries) : 



In Spiti polyandry is not recognized, as only the elder brother marries and the 

 younger ones become monks. But there is not the least aversion to the adea of two 

 brothers cohabiting with the same woman, and I believe it often happens in an 

 nn?eco 4ized watparticnlarl^ among the landless classes, who send no sons ante the 

 Znast'erest * ^ * In Spiti there is a regular ceremony ot divorce which xs 

 Zetr used when both parties consent. Husband and wife ^oU tbe e^^^^^^^ 

 thread repeating meanwhile, "Our father and our mother gave, another father and 

 L h r took awa^y. As it was not our fate to agree, we separa e with -utual good 

 will " The thread is then severed by applying a light to the middle. After a 

 divorce a woman is at liberty to marry whom she pleases. 



I do not believe that in other parts of the country divorce or second 

 marriage exist, though among the Kokonor Tibetans, at least it some- 

 times happens that a wife deserts her husband to cohabit with another 

 man or a husband his wife for another woman. 



Beath-Mortuary ceremonies.-Spe'^^^mg of the T\iug-hsiaiig, the 



Sui shu says : 



When people of eighty or over die the relatives do not mourn, for they say that 

 thlll^^'re a'ched thf end of their allotted time, but if a young person ^ -« ^^^ -^ 

 and lament, saying that it is a great wrong. (Sui shu, Book, 80; Conf T ang shu, 

 Book, 221.) 



The T'ang shu (Book, 221), speaking of the Tung nil kuo which 

 embraced in the seventh or eighth century the greater part of north- 

 eastern Tibet, says : 



They wear mourning for three years, not changing their clothes and not washing 

 When a man of wealth dies they remove the skin from the body and put it aside 

 the flesh and bones they place iu an earthen vase, mixe.l with gold dust, and h^ 

 they carefully bury. When the sovereign is buried several tens of persons lollow 

 the dead into the tomb. 



Early European travelers in eastern Asia tell us that the Tibetans 

 used to devour the bodies of their dead parents. Thus William ot 

 Eubruk (Itinerarium, Edit. Soc. Ceo. de Paris, p. 289) says: 



Post istos sunt Tebec, homines solentes coraedere parentes suos defunctos, ut causa 

 pietatis non facerent aliud sepulcrum eis nisi viscera sua. Modo tamen hoc demise- 

 runt quia abhominabiles erant omni nationi. Tamen ad hue faciunt pulcros ciphos 

 de capitibus parentum, ut iUis bibentes habeant memoriam eorum m jocunditate sua. 

 Hoc dixit michi qui viderat. 



Piano Carpiui (Historia Mongalorum, ix, p. 058) says: 

 VenitadterramBurithabet * * * qui sunti pagani. Quieonsuetudiuemmira- 

 bilem imo potius miserabilem habent: quia cum alien, jus pater humana>, natura, 

 debitum solvit, umnem congregant parentelam, et comedunt eum sicut nobis diceba- 

 tur pro certo. 



Friar Odoric, who was the first European traveler to visit Tibet, 

 gives a differeut account of their mortuary customs, and one more in 



* It is a difficult matter to say where polyandry begins and cohabitation ends in 

 Tibet. These terms seem nearly interchangeable. 



