32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



river. This I believe is the method followed by the poorer class who 

 cannot afford to pay for the services of a priest. In Gyantse and 

 Lhassa I saw a certain class of beggar called Rhagubias, which, in 

 times of famine, are fed on corpses. 



After an action, when we buried their dead, the Tibetans always 

 came and dug them up again, and left them for the animals and 

 birds of prey. 



WettpoiM. The sword is the weapon of Tibet. It is long and 

 heavy, and wielded with both hands, and always kept sharpened and 

 ready for use. A dagger or kukri is almost invariably carried in the 

 folds of his dress by a Tibetan, a matchlock gun fitted with prongs for 

 resting on the ground, and a bandolier and powder-horn slung round 

 the neck. Jingals are their artillery ; these are a large kind of match- 

 lock, firing a bullet as large or larger than a man's fist. Through our 

 glasses we could see the Tibetan soldier firing them by running from 

 one to another with a lighted torch. A Martini-Henry pattern rifle 

 called a "Lhassa rifle" is used by the soldiers. The bullet is ex- 

 plosive, composed of clay encased in soft lead and made by the soldiers. 

 Bows, arrows and shields are found in the old forts, but never used 

 in warfare. Sometimes the bows and arrows are used for killing 

 animals for the sake of their skins. A disagreeable feature of their 

 offensive operations against us was the poisoning of the running 

 streams by aconite. This was done by tying bundles of aconite 

 roots loosely together, and laying them in the water. We did not 

 lose many men from this, as fish lying dead in the river warned us. 



/flxi-tises. Small-pox is the disease of Tibet ; every other Tibetan 

 is deeply pitted and marked by this dread disease. Syphilis is very 

 common. Much congenital syphilis is met with, and deformities re- 

 sulting therefrom. On the whole, the Tibetans appear a very healthy 

 race, their lungs and hearts seem very sound. They have wonderful 

 recuperative powers, and stood operations after injuries where no 

 KuropiMii or Indian could have survived; wounds even with the 

 smallest amount of attention rarely suppurated. A case came under 

 my notice! of a Tibetan who had been wounded three months before 



