SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OP ABERDEEN. 31 



dagger made of wood or brass. They perform this as a sacred 

 rite. 



Punishments. The Tibetans do not directly take life, but they 

 make the victim's life a burden to him till he longs for death. 

 Flogging is common and very severe, and solitary confinement in 

 dark dungeons is often resorted to. Thieves have their eyes burned 

 out with hot plates, and thus there are many blind beggars in Tibet. 

 Traitors and spies undergo a very horrible punishment, which consists 

 in the skin of the abdomen being cut and pulled over the head, the 

 poor wretch being left while vultures and other birds of prey feed on 

 him till he dies. 



Marriage Custom*. Polyandry is the custom of the country. 

 The brothers of one family as a rule, but not always, have one wife in 

 common. They appear to live very happily together, and the women 

 and children are well treated. 



Funeral Customs. The Tibetans do not bury their dead. The 

 high funeral custom is a great festival held at night under the direc- 

 tion of the chief lama, toms-toms are sounded, bells ring, gongs are 

 beaten, horns blown till the noise attracts all the dogs of the neigh- 

 bourhood. The head lama cuts up the body into small pieces, 

 throws these to the four winds chanting some prayers while the dogs 

 eat the pieces. This being done the officiating lama has a bowl of 

 tsampo and water brought to him, he mixes this with his hands, and 

 washes off the last remnant of the corpse from his hands and knives, 

 so that nothing may be lost. This mixture is given to the dogs. On 

 some occasions, as in the case of the funeral of a high lama, the thigh 

 bone and skull of the corpse is preserved. The former is made into 

 a horn, the latter into either a drinking vessel or tom-tom. Another 

 method of disposing of the dead is by feeding fish with the frag- 

 ments. This appears to be reserved for the more sacred bodies of 

 chief lamas, and there are many pools round Lhassa containing enor- 

 mous fish, which are sacred and supposed to contain the souls of 

 these lamas. I once saw the body of a child brought down to a 

 river, and after a few prayers being said over it, it was cast into the 





