248 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



of fat and butter. They are much addicted to tobacco and fermented 

 liquor, and upon the whole the comforts of life are in their kind neither 

 sparing nor unsubstantial. Their manners partake of the grossness of 

 their food ; no feeling of female delicacy prevails here, and a promiscuous 

 familiarity and coarseness in all the habits and decorum of life reign 

 everywhere. Their wearing apparel accords with the exigencies of the 

 climate and the suddenness of the thermal changes. From the sheep-skin 

 tunic to the chintzes and fine silks of Lhassa, which last are the insignia 

 of the higher classes, or from the Vazu of the State to the Nomade of 

 the desert, there is little in education or manners to denote distinction. 

 Authority here, as elsewhere, claims a certain respect ; but the only 

 courtly deference I observed in my interview with the Khdrpdn of Laddk 

 (and this seemed to be due to me rather than from me) was during dinner, 

 which we eat together in the midst of his greasy attendants, who devoured 

 the fragments with voracious appetite, licking their fingers and then their 

 plates, which were afterwards lodged within the folds of their woollen 

 garments, or between them and the skin. 



Strangers, especially Europeans, arriving amongst them and passing 

 rapidly on their way, see nothing in the country or inhabitants to raise a 

 favorable impression in their mind. They observe them in black bare- 

 headed groupes, timid, squalid, and in rags, and every third person a 

 priest; but, however unintelligible their conduct when debating in an 

 unknown dialect about supplies, or the propriety of our progress, (both 

 of which are doubtful in such a territory,) in their houses were treated 

 with friendship and hospitality, unaccompanied by that savage feeling 

 which protects a traveller as a guest, and betrays him beyond the threshold 

 of his sanctuary. 



■■ i' : 



The complexion of the people is darker than might be assumed from 

 the influence of so cold a climate, but the solar beams are equally or more 



