64 
NARRATIVE. 
flour is eaten by the Tibetans, simply made into a 
paste with water ; and a sheepskin bag of this " satu," 
^s it is called, is almost the only food they take with 
them on a long journey, and, as might be expected, 
they suffer dreadfully from indigestion. 
Throughout Ladak, barley is used for making a 
very inferior kind of beer called "chang." The ferment 
used is said to be brought from a distance, and to be 
got from some plant, but I failed in obtaining any 
further information regarding it. The beer is made 
in a very rough way, and is usually ver}^ sour, but 
after a long march it is not an unpleasant drink ; and 
although very weak, many of the Tibetans drink such 
quantities of it as to make themselves very jolly. 
All the Tibetans are passionately fond of tea, which 
they infuse along with barley flour and dried apricots 
reduced to powder ; when the mixture has been 
brought to the consistence of a thick soup, a little 
butter and salt are added. Most Europeans, who 
have been reduced to such extremities as to be 
driven to try the mixture, flnd it very palatable. The 
summer in Ladak is only about four months in 
duration, namely, June, July, August, and September. 
The harvest is gathered in September, and within a 
very short period winter sets in and all the smaller 
streams become frozen. The Indus, I believe, does not 
freeze until after Christmas. 
During the long winter, fodder seems to be very 
difficult to obtain ; all the willows about the villages 
are pollarded, and the leaves, together with all the 
scanty natural herbage, are dried and stored on the 
roofs of the houses to feed the cattle in winter. 
I believe there is hardly a blade of grass or a green 
