1855.] Notes on Eastern Thibet. 229 



privies attached to them which are most jealously watched. The 

 contents of these places are removed by a class of people who prin- 

 cipally live by the occupation, and are the filthiest of all the popu- 

 lation, which is everywhere and in every grade, very dirty. They 

 work with their hands at their vile occupation and in the middle of 

 it unwashed may be seen drinking hot tea, and eating raw and sun- 

 dried flesh close to the piles of ordure. Ashes are mixed with the 

 ordure, and this is reckoned the best of all manures. Liquid ma- 

 nure, (ordure with water,) is also in use, but sparingly. This mode 

 of using manure is probably taken from the Chinese. 



Scarcely any weeding is required, as the crops grow nearly free of 

 all weeds. When necessary, it is done with the hand, the weeds being 

 carefully preserved for the cattle. 



The Thibetans reap with an untoothed sickle, the crops being all cut 

 close to the ground to save the fodder. Wheat is tied up in small 

 sheaves and stocked on the ground, or in yards near the houses. The 

 corn is beaten out by the flail as in Europe, the women taking a part 

 in the threshing with the men. This is done with great care, so that 

 not a grain is lost. There is also a kind of hackle used for beating 

 out the corn. A beam 8 or 10 feet long toothed with iron spikes, 

 through which the sheaves are drawn, The winnowing is performed 

 in the open air. 



The grain is ground into meal by watermills. In some vil- 

 lages, mills are built by subscription, and the parties use them in 

 turn. There are public mills also. The millers in these take one 

 part in 20 as payment. There is a great press at the mills for two 

 months after the harvest, when they are going day and night, as 

 frost sets in in November so hard that they cannot be used again 

 till the spring. There are no windmills in Thibet I believe, 

 although in no country in the world, I believe, is there a more steady 

 wind in the cold season, than here. 



Wages of Labour. 



A Chinese soldier is very highly paid in Thibet, i. e. he gets as 

 much as 12 to 16 Company's Rupees per mensem. The Thibetan 

 soldier has no regular money pay. He is allowed the Government 

 share of revenue on a portion of land, his own farm or another, and 

 this does not exceed 40 or 50 Company's Eupees per annum. 



