CAB A VAN DIUVERS 137 



fortable. In front was a yanl and stabling for a few 

 horses, and a pole was erected in it from which strings 

 of paper prayers hung fluttering in the wind. Eound 

 the walls also bits of stick were inserted here and there 

 and similarly ornamented. The roof of the kitchen was 

 flat, and on it there was a small dome-shaped erection 

 of clay, in which every day, at about five o'clock in the 

 afternoon, the branches of a sort of coniferous plant 

 were burnt with religious ceremony. 



Caravans used to stop here, and on their arrival the 

 beasts of burden were unloaded in the yard and then 

 driven along a 2)assage running through the house to 

 an enclosure at the back, where they were left for the 

 night. The animals used were horses, or a cross-breed 

 between the yak and a cow, a much smaller animal 

 than the wild yak. The drivers are all Tibetan, and are 

 a rough muscular set of men wearing their hair hanging 

 over their faces, their skins being tanned a dark brown 

 colour. Thev wear a loose brown woollen coat reaching 

 to the knees, and fastened round the waist with a belt, 

 through which the upper part is pulled up till it falls 

 over and hides the girdle, forming a substitute for 

 pockets. Eaw hide boots reaching to just below the 

 knee are worn, and a curiously shaped cowl for the head 

 with a flap hanging down behind, in the middle of which 

 is a circular red patch, completes their costume. They 



