106 Doker-la—the Sacred Mountain 
by one’s own men. As a matter of fact their clotted 
milk is not unpalatable, if looked upon as cheese and not 
milk; but the uses of cheese in cookery are somewhat 
limited. Fresh Tibetan butter on the other hand is excel- 
lent, though combined with a good deal of hair, from being 
made by the simple process of kicking milk around in a 
yak-skin bag. Such luxuries as fresh milk and butter can 
be better appreciated when one remembers that in China 
neither butter nor milk can be obtained, because the Chinese 
consider it disgusting to milk cows, and one therefore has 
to subsist on the tinned varieties. 
Two days later, that is on June 27, we reached A-tun-tsi, 
the journey having extended over twenty-five days, and 
been fairly successful in results. As in the corresponding 
region of the Salween valley, the weather remained fine 
coming up through the arid region of the Mekong, though 
all day long heavy masses of cloud rested on the mountains 
to east and west, and the usual local wind got up at mid-day 
without ever affecting the movement of the clouds. Never 
more than a few drops of rain at a time—the dregs from 
the cloud-fringe—fell in the valley itself at this period. 
My landlord had gone away to get married during our 
absence, the ceremony consisting of fetching the woman 
and bringing her to his house, no doubt after exchanging 
presents with the parents. He turned up the day after 
my arrival, driving several donkeys laden with supplies, 
chiefly presents from his father-in-law. Behind him came 
his wife, dressed, I imagine for the first and last time in 
her life, in new and clean clothes, with a friend on either 
side holding her hands, while she coyly looked at the 
ground. Escorting the party came a crowd of shouting 
children carrying bunches of flowers, while the villagers 
stood around in groups to see the triumphal entry. In 
the evening there was a horrid orgy directly under my 
room, and everybody got gloriously drunk. Two days 
later I was called in to prescribe for the bride. On the 
whole, however, it was nothing like such a popular holiday 
as a funeral we had in the village a few months later, which 
was attended by the whole community. 
My friend Chao, the local mandarin, called on me the 
day after our return and found me busily engaged amongst 
