138 LANDLADY OF THE INN 



also wear, but whether as an ornament or not I could 

 not find out, a long thick pigtail, plaited up out of 

 coarse black hair and ornamented with silver bands, in 

 some of which turquoises or pieces of red coral are set. 



The landlady of the inn was a Tibetan, whose husband 

 was at Lhassa, and who was, I believe, an interpreter. 

 She was very comfortably off as far as I could judge, 

 and one day she showed me a great part of her wealth, 

 which consisted of massive gold ornaments of rough 

 manufacture. It is a common practice among the 

 women here to have their fortunes in jewellery, because, 

 I imagine, there are no banks or safe places where 

 money can be kept. Gold, I may here mention, has 

 not the same relative value to silver as it has in Lower 

 China, but is considerably cheaper. 



The city of Ta-tsien-lu is most irregularly built, the 

 houses being of all shapes and sizes, the roadways 

 merely layers of large stones, and a stream runs through 

 its centre from south to north. 



It is inhabited principally by Chinese and Tibetans, 

 the former being generally the merchants and shop- 

 keepers, the latter for the most part employed in the cara- 

 van trade. All Tibetans are dressed in much the same 

 way as I have before described, those not being employed 

 in caravans wearing a felt hat, if a hat is worn at all, 

 instead of a cowl. Certain of the more wealthy wear 



