322 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Dr. A. L. Shelton 



UNTIL RECENTLY, BOWS AND ARROWS WERE IN USE AS WEAPONS IN TIBET, BUT THEY 

 HAVE BEEN SUPPLANTED BY FIREARMS 



The Tibetans of the Province of Kham spend most of their time out of doors and are 

 a sturdy people. Games are uncommon, but there are many tests of strength, skill, and 

 marksmanship. 



leader in a party which, by command of 

 some Chinese official, had exterminated 

 another family. Twelve people had been 

 killed. However, the party had not done 

 its work with complete thoroughness, for 

 one boy of about fifteen years of age had 

 escaped. 



This boy had fled to inner Tibet, had 

 spent the intervening years nursing his 

 grudge, and the night before, in company 

 with some twenty or thirty friends, he 

 had come to the village and had succeeded 

 in killing twelve members of the head- 

 man's family. 



By a strange coincidence, one boy of 

 about fourteen years, belonging to the 

 headman's family, had escaped by hiding 

 in the ruined house. I afterward be- 

 came well acquainted with this young man 

 and found that he was living for just one 

 thing — revenge. 



IMPLACABLE ENEMIES, EAITHEUL FRIENDS 



In Batang I know little boys who will 

 undoubtedly be future victims of halen. 



They are playing together as they grow 

 up, but in the course of time, unless they 

 are willing to be disgraced in the eyes of 

 their friends, they must become sworn 

 enemies and attempt to destroy each 

 other because of events in the past his- 

 tory of their families. 



Although these people are implacable 

 in their hatreds, they are no less faithful 

 to their friends. Two years ago, during 

 the time when I was acting as mediator 

 between the Chinese and the Tibetans 

 and attempting to arrange an armistice 

 while the fighting was going on, I spent 

 some two months in Gartok, Tibet, as the 

 guest of the Tibetan governor ; also there 

 at the same time was Lozong, the head 

 of a band of brigands, who had come to 

 ask the governor to permit him and his 

 followers to take Batang for him. 



During our stay, Lozong and I became 

 quite good friends, often visiting each 

 other. One day he proposed to me that 

 we should be brothers. According to 

 this custom among the people of Kham, 



