SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 29 



open at the neck, crossed at the waist, and tied so. The robe reaches 

 to the knees ; they have short trousers tucked into bright-coloured 

 cloth, " top " boots with thick rope or hide soles. The monk or lama 

 is always bareheaded and clean shaven ; his robe is red, with a hood, 

 and reaches to his heels ; the higher priests wear yellow robes. Their 

 names change with the seasons of the year every four months, but 

 they appear to have one permanent name, a name of the day of the 

 week, presumably the day on which they were born, e.g., Parsong, 

 meaning Friday, is a common name, also Tsring, meaning Sunday. 



Mode of Life of the Tibetan. This is very simple. The ordinary 

 Tibetan house is a square stone building, three sides of which are 

 occupied as living rooms, while the fourth is the gateway leading into 

 the court-yard. Just outside the house is the threshing floor, a clean, 

 hard-baked square, where all the grain is threshed with a flail. From 

 the court-yard low doorways lead into the rooms on each of the three 

 sides. The interiors of the rooms are lined with wood ; the lower 

 rooms are generally used for housing animals and for storerooms ; a 

 ladder-like stair leads up to the next floor where the people live. 

 The cooking, washing, etc., are done in the court- yard. Tibetans dis- 

 pense with beds altogether, and lie on rugs spread on the floor. Here 

 and there one sees mills driven by water ; these are for grinding the 

 grain. The staple diet of Tibet is tsampo, or barley meal, which is 

 eaten mixed with either hot or cold water. A Tibetan on a journey 

 generally carries a little bag of tsampo attached by a string to his 

 waist. Another common food is dried mutton eaten raw either with 

 or without tsampo, and is torn off in strips. A Tibetan always keeps 

 his cow or goat, for he is fond of milk. 



Both men and women are inveterate smokers of cigarettes, which 

 they make themselves, or which are brought from Darjeeling or China. 

 Some smoke long Chinese pipes. The men are very intemperate and 

 frequently get intoxicated on rice beer or chang ; these they make 

 themselves, and they are sold in various houses along the road. Tea 

 can also be obtained there, the Tibetan being inordinately fond of his 

 tea, which he prefers buttered. This is an acquired taste. The women 



