1840.] Journal of a trip through Kunawur, tyc. 559 



The dress of the Tartars consists in general of a strong and thick 

 birmore, which is manufactured by themselves from the wool of the 

 Thibetan sheep. The coat or body dress fits somewhat tightly over 

 the breast and shoulders, and has long sleeves ; it descends as far as 

 the knees, but is not plaited like the dress of Kunawur ; they wear 

 also large loose trowsers with the ends tucked up, and tied at the 

 knee, causing them to fall in large bags nearly to the ankle. The foot 

 is encased in a strong, and clumsily made shoe of leather, to which is 

 attached a woollen stocking reaching to the knee, where it is confined 

 by a garter beneath the trowsers. 



This stocking is generally of two colours, the lower half being red 

 or yellow, and the upper half blue. This is the dress of a decently 

 clad person, but in general they are seen clothed in rags and tatters 

 of the filthiest kind, their stockings patched with yellow, red, blue, 

 and every colour of the rainbow, yet bearing no more resemblance to 

 Tartars — to which the fanciful imagination of a former traveller has 

 likened them — than do the patched, and parti-coloured rags of an Eng- 

 lish beggar, to the neatly arranged colours of a Highland plaid. 



To the above dress is often added a red linen sash, in which is 

 stuck a knife, and a steel tobacco pipe, called a " gungsah" ; it is 

 sometimes inlaid with silver, and rudely worked, and is manufactur- 

 ed in Spiti from the iron which is imported from the lower hills. The 

 bowl for the tobacco, and the tout en semble have very much the 

 form of an English tobacco pipe. The Chinese Tartars have them 

 made of brass, and neatly ornamented ; a small leathern purse in which 

 is kept the tobacco in a dried state, and a steel, or chuckmuch for 

 striking a light, are also suspended from the waist by a string, or 

 sometimes a brass chain. 



Round the neck is worn a necklace of pieces of amber and coloured 

 stones, and many of the devout have also a long string of wooden 

 beads, which are counted over as they hum an invocation to their deity. 



In the form of head dress there is some difference; that of Hun- 

 grung being usually a close fitting cap, with a flap to protect the 

 ears and nape of the neck, and which in the summer is turned 

 up. The Tartars of Spiti wear the same, as also a kind of bag- 

 shaped cap, the upper part of which flaps over one side of the face ; 

 this last is also worn in Ludak. 



