262 
S. C. Das — Travels on the Shores of Lake Yamdo-Croft. [No. 3, 
In higher life courtship is carried on with little art, and quickly 
brought to a conclusion. The elder brother of a family, to whom the 
choice belongs, when enamoured of a damsel, makes his proposal to 
the parents. If his suit is approved, and the offer accepted, the parents, 
with their daughter, repair to the suitor’s house, when the male and 
female acquaintances of both parties meet and carouse for the space of 
three days, with music, dancing, and every kind of festivity. At the 
expiration of this time, marriage is complete. Mutual consent is generally 
the bond of union, and the parties present are witnesses to the contract 
which is formed for life. In case when one man marries one wife 
mutual consent is supplemented by a pecuniary contract which makes it 
dissoluble. 
The country round the lake does not exhibit a varied prospect; 
it is all a leafless, dreary scene ; one uniform 
The Aspect of the russet brown 
covers alike the valleys and the 
lake country of Yam- . J 
do. hills. On the summits of the hills, here and 
there, springs are seen arrested in their fall, 
and converted into solid monuments of ice. These contribute greatly, 
together with the universal nakedness of both hills and valleys, to 
impress the traveller with an idea of the extreme bleakness of the region, 
and the rigour of its climate. The atmosphere, indeed, is in an extreme 
degree keen and pure. The dryness of the soil and scantiness of vegeta¬ 
tion, contribute little towards charging the air with humidity. It 
remains clear even to brilliancy throughout the year. In winter the 
water of the lake becomes frozen. Its expanse becomes uniformly 
smooth, presenting a most noble sheet of ice. 
In the narrowest parts of the lake there are ferries. During 
summer and autumn small boats made of an entire skin of a yak ply 
across them, carrying one or two sheep, goats or persons. In winter 
on the frozen surface, dust and powdered cow-dung are thrown to make 
the passage of sheep and goat over them less slippery. 
The smaller lakes freeze to a great depth which afford ground for 
skating, but the people of Tibet are ignorant of that kind of amuse¬ 
ment; they, however, are very good sliders. 
II.—ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS. 
I. A visit to Samding, the Great Monastery of the Lake 
COUNTRY OF YAMDO. 
On the 15th of May, 1882, while I was proceeding to Lhasa, in the 
company of Lhacham Kusho, the wife of Shape Phala, one of the four 
Ministers of the Grand Lama, of Lhasa, I suddenly fell ill at Nangar-tse. 
