54 A -tun-tst 
Inside the slack of this useful garment, when tied up during 
the day, a man will carry a variety of things, and it is like 
a grotesque conjuring trick to see him producing, appa- 
rently from the recesses of an enlarged paunch, such articles 
as a sword, a ¢samba bowl, a chicken, a pipe, and a pine- 
torch. From his belt hang flint, steel, and snuff-box, and 
besides the things mentioned he always carries tobacco and 
a bag of ¢samba. 
He wears his matted hair done up in a queue bound 
round the top of his head, and frequently ornamented with 
a number of coarse silver rings each set with a big turquoise 
or coral; indeed the Tibetan men are very fond of jewellery 
and wear several such rings on their fingers. The women 
however do not make such a display, finger-rings being 
little worn and ear-rings small. The commonest piece of 
jewellery is a silver brooch, made in two pieces fitting into 
each other, which fastens the collar of the jacket. 
More curious still, the men always wear threaded on 
the queue a section of an elephant’s tusk, and I found 
myself wondering why it was that both the Tibetans and 
Lissus wear characteristic ornaments which are brought from 
other countries than their own, the Tibetans these pieces of 
elephant’s tusk worn in the hair, and the Lissu women a 
head-dress, in shape something like a baby’s sun-bonnet, 
covered with cowries, as shown in the photograph. There 
is little doubt that this last is peculiar to the Lissus, and 
eminently characteristic of them. 
In country districts the Tibetan women plait their hair 
into numerous thin tails which hang down behind and are 
collected together into one queue below the waist ; but in 
the cities they wear the ordinary queue, quite half of which 
is artificial, piled on the top of the head and finished off 
with two tassels of red or green silk bound with silver 
wire. 
But perhaps it would be more correct to speak of the 
Tibetans of the Mekong valley, rather than of the province 
of Kham, for they differ greatly in different parts of this 
country. At A-tun-tsi is one type, at Pang-tsi-la another 
quite distinct type, and at Batang yet a third, though it is 
evident that all these people are nevertheless Tibetans, 
and resemble each other more closely, for example, than the 
