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 
