1855.] Notes on Eastern Thibet. 239 



The skins furnish clothing for the working classes and servants. 

 All classes in Thibet put on furs of some kind at the commencement 

 of the winter. It is not reckoned reputable to kill your own meat, 

 and therefore every hamlet has its professional butcher. In towns 

 it is a great trade from the enormous quantity of meat consumed. 

 Some butchers will have five hundred carcases dried and ready at 

 their stalls. The trade of a butcher — Shempa — is hereditary and 

 strange to say a despised one. 



The horns of animals are not turned to any useful purpose in 

 Thibet. Small houses are built in the suburbs of Lassa with horns 

 and clay mortar. Gloats are also reared in considerable flocks, but 

 principally on account of their milk. The flesh of the sheep is infi- 

 nitely preferred. The milk of yaks, cows, sheep and goats is used 

 alike for making dried curds, and the various preparations of milk 

 used by these people. The milk of mares does not appear to be 

 used at all in Eastern Thibet, although ponies are extensively bred 

 there. The number of other cattle renders it unnecessary. Fowls 

 are of a small breed, and are reared with some difficulty. The large 

 fowls of Sikim and Bootan are much prized there. The Thibetans 

 do not care about fowl as an article of diet, and it is only since the 

 period of the Chinese supremacy that fowls, pigs, or fish have been 

 used by them. Even now in the places remote from Chinese posts 

 pork and fowls are not to be had. — The Chinese must have pork, eggs, 

 and fowls, and around Lassa, Griangtchi, Digarchi and other places 

 and their stations, these are reared for Chinese consumption. 



In July and August severe fevers are not uncommon. Cholera 

 is not known ; dysentery is, and is often violent, sometimes proving 

 fatal in four days. Cough and diseases of the chest are not pre- 

 valent. 



Ophthalmia is very prevalent and very severe. Itinerant ocalists go 

 about the country and are in good repute : they never perform opera- 

 tions, but cure by application of unguents and washes. Three 

 days travelling in the snow without hair-blinds is sure to produce 

 ophthalmia. 



Skin diseases are by no means common, although the people are 

 so filthy in their habits. The most dreaded and the most fatal of 



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