170 TIBET. Chap. XXIV. 



traverse its surface, give it a comparatively level appearance, 

 and suggest the term " maidan ' or "plains' to the 

 Tibetan, when comparing his country with the complicated 

 ridges of the deep Sikkim valleys. Here one may travel 

 for many miles without rising or falling 3000 feet, yet 

 never descending below 14,000 feet, partly because the flat 

 winding valleys are followed in preference to exhausting 

 ascents, and partly because the passes are seldom more than 

 that elevation above the valleys ; whereas, in Sikkim, 

 rises and descents of 6000, and even 9000 feet, are 

 common in passing from valley to valley, sometimes in one 

 day's march. 



The swarthy races of Dingcham have been elsewhere 

 described ; they are an honest, hospitable, and very hardy 

 people, differing from the northern Tibetans chiefly in 

 colour, and in invariably wearing the pigtail, which 

 MM. Hue and Gabet assure us is not usual in Lhassa.* 

 They are a pastoral race, and Campbell saw a flock of 400 

 hornless sheep, grazing on short sedges {Car ex) and fescue- 

 grass, in the middle of October, at 18,000 feet above the 

 sea. An enormous ram attended the flock, whose long- 

 hair hung down to the ground ; its back was painted red. 



There is neither tree nor shrub in this country; and a 

 very little wheat (which seldom ripens), barley, turnips, and 

 radishes are, I believe, the only crops, except occasionally 



* Amongst Lhassan customs alluded to by these travellers, is that of the women 

 smearing their faces with a black pigment, the object of which they affirm to be 

 that they may render themselves odious to the male sex, and thus avoid tempta- 

 tion. The custom is common enough, but the real object is to preserve the skiu, 

 which the dry cold wind peels from the face. The pigment is mutton-fat, black- 

 ened, according to Tchebu Lama, with catechu and other ingredients ; but I believe 

 more frequently by the dirt of the face itself. I fear I do not slander the Tibetan 

 damsels in saying that personal cleanliness and chastity are both lightly esteemed 

 amongst them; and as the Lama naively remarked, when questioned on the 

 subject, "the Tibetan women arc not so different from those of other countries 

 as to wish to conceal what charms they possess." 



