86 



TALUNG. 



Chap. XXI. 



Rajah for the privilege : they arrive in June and leave in 

 September. Both men and women were indescribably 

 filthy ; as they never wash, their faces were perfectly black 

 with smoke and exposure, and the women's with a pigment 

 of grease as a protection from the wind. The men were 





LKPCHA GIRLS (THE OUTER FIGURES), AND TIBETAN WOMEN. 



dressed as usual, in the blanket-cloak, with brass pipes, long 

 knives, flint, steel, and amulets ; the women wore similar, 

 but shorter cloaks, with silver and copper girdles, trowsers, 

 and flannel boots. Their head-dresses were very remarkable. 

 A circular band of plaited yak's hair was attached to the 

 back hair, and encircled the head like a saint's glory,* at 

 some distance round it. A band crossed the forehead, 



* I find in Ermann's " Siberia" (i., p. 210), that the married women of Yekater- 

 inberg wear a bead-dress like an ancient glory covered with jewels, whilst the 

 unmarried ones plait their tresses. The same distinguished traveller mentions 

 having seen a lad of six vears old suckled, amongst the Tungooze of East Siberia. 



