48 Up the Mekong Valley 
on the surface in large oily drops. The basket was then 
removed with the tea leaves, a pinch of coarse salt thrown 
in, and the mixture stamped vigorously up and down 
in the cylinder by means of a perforated wooden disc 
attached to a long handle, which fitted closely like a 
piston. The oily drops of butter are thus thoroughly broken 
up and emulsified, the salty flavour equally distributed, and 
the beverage made ready for consumption. Taken hot 
from a cup, as tea, the Englishman is apt to find it 
nauseating, particularly when there are yak hairs from the 
butter generously distributed through it; but taken hot 
with a spoon, as soup, it is quite palatable. Such is the 
power of the association of ideas. 
But the Tibetan himself does not as a rule drink it. 
He takes from the ample folds of his cloak a small leather 
bag of ¢samba (roasted barley ground into flour) and a 
wooden bowl—two of the numerous articles a Tibetan 
always carries about with him in lieu of much superfluous 
clothing—and mixing a little ¢samdéa with the tea, he 
kneads the mass into a ball of dough-like consistency, and 
complacently chews it, powdering white rings round his 
mouth in the process. Then out come the long pipes, a 
dry tobacco leaf is plucked from a bunch stowed away in 
the corner, crunched up in the hand, and the dust dropped 
into the pipe bowl, which is lighted with a layer of hot 
charcoal ashes pressed down on the top; and the men 
sitting cross-legged round the fire in the middle of the 
room contentedly smoke. 
Just before we left Tsu-kou, an unfortunate incident 
occurred. My landlord brought his youngest child to me 
one evening and asked for medicine for him. The little 
fellow, who was only about a year old, was suffering from 
fever and a severe cough, having evidently caught a chill ; 
and to ease the coughing I at once gave him a few 
drops of chlorodyne. Then giving the parents some quinine 
tabloids, and telling them to wrap him up carefully, keep 
him in a warm room, and feed him lightly on hot milk, 
I dismissed the affair from my mind. 
On the following afternoon it seems, the parents, who 
had told me in the morning that the child was better, 
suddenly anticipated the worst, and very foolishly carried 
