346 AFTERNOON TEA WITH THE TARTARS. 



was ladled full of tea from a dirty metal pot on the fire, 

 and offered to each of us in turn. The tea ^ was made, as 

 is the custom in Tibet, with butter and salt. It was greasy 

 uninviting stuff, but I swallowed a cup of it in good-fellow- 

 ship. This rite of Tibetan hospitality being over, the play 

 was resumed. The ostensible stakes were pebbles, though 

 they doubtless represented something more valuable. The 

 dice were cast from the little wooden cups of the players, 

 each time with a short exclamation like " put." Although 

 I wa,tched the game intently for some time, I failed to 

 follow the intricate score. On rising to leave the tent I 

 was presented with a token of goodwill from the Jongpen, 

 in the shape of some more yaks' tails, and two round lumps 

 of butter sewn up in raw sheep's-hide as tight and hard as 

 a cricket-ball. Puddoo told me that yak-milk butter thus 

 prepared keeps good for a very long time in the dry cold 

 climate of Tibet, and that these balls were probably more 

 than a year old. Whatever was their age, the butter they 

 contained was tolerably palatable. 



The rain had now become sleet, and the icy wind blowing 

 down off the snow-fields had increased to a gale, which made 

 pitching the tents, with our hands benumbed with* cold, a 

 rather trying job. As the scant amount of grass-root fuel 

 we could collect was wet, and refused to emit anything but 

 smoke, I served out grog all round to my shivering com- 

 panions, and after a hastily despatched meal, turned in 

 under my blankets to try and keep warm. In the morning 

 there were two inches of snow on the tents, it was still 

 snowing, and the pass was enveloped in mist. About 

 eleven o'clock the sun shone forth again, so we commenced 

 the ascent. The jooboos had a rough time of it ploughing 

 up through the fresh fallen snow, which was also most 

 trying to our eyes. On the summit of the pass we met 



1 The Tibetans import their tea from China in the form of solid lumps 

 known as "brick-tea," 



