Vol. IX, No. 2.] Fr. Krick among the Abors (1853). 117 
[N.S.] 
Now, I have entered Thibet by the South-Eastern frontier, 
without coming across any traces of our holy religion: several 
other travellers entered it by the South-West with no greater 
success. So, it is quite possible that the Shokhaptras be a 
tribe occupying the South of Thibet, in the vicinity of the 
adam country. As a matter of fact, I have often been told 
by the Padams that there existed towards the North, before 
reaching Thibet, a tribe which shunned all intercourse with the 
Padams, and from which they pretended to have received the p- 188. 
cross. The Padams, being their next neighbours, must have 
been struck by the importance those people attached to the 
cross, and may have adopted it for their own use without 
tattoo themselves with the cross ; or anticipating, perhaps, that 
the missionary’s death would leave them without a pastor, the 
natives may have wished in this manner to preserve a precious 
deposit of their faith. 
I once met a Thibetan who was marked with the same 
sign; on my asking where he had learned to wear it, he pointed 
towards the Padam country, adding that he had received it 
from the savage mountaineers. 
ress, government and customs will not be devoid of 
interest for a Frenchman; so a few details on that subject will, 
I expect, be welcome. I have very little to say about their 
mode of dressing, as their clothing is reduced to a minimum 
somewhat too primitive; however, the full dress sometimes p. 189. 
worn by men deserves a short notice. 
It is composed of eleven pieces : Ist, a loin cloth ; 2nd, a 
in front, and sprinkled all over with 
; 3rd, a cuirass 
camel hair; it covers the chest and 
t assing through a hole in the centre, and is 
ate cad ae Fi ni t the thrust of the lance ; 
are imported from Thibe 
resemblance to the hatch 
sword; 7th, a small basket ; 
iis be identified? Fr. A. Desgodins, 
the Tit Se ee a@ Cia who had travelled all over 
speaking 
i < «6 i lower part of the Tsangpo as f 
ee ee See tage (inhabitants of the South) 
ts of the South).’’ From the lama’s 
godins did not hesitate to con 
were the Abors. Proc. A.S.B., 18: p- 
1 Possibly the Nepalese kukri.—[A. 
