302 
TIBET. 
prepared meat, daring all the time I remained at Teslioo Loomboo, 
which had been cured in the preceding winter. It was perfectly sweet, 
though the fat is sometimes liable to become slightly rancid, on expo¬ 
sure to the air; and it is therefore usually kept in close boxes, till it is 
wanted lor use. I was accustomed to eat heartily of the meat thus 
prepared, without any further dressing, and at length grew fond of it: 
though I could not possibly surmount'the prejudice I felt, against that 
which was recently killed, and raw. 
My Tibet friends, however, gave an uniform and decided preference 
to the undressed crude meat; and though I listened to their praises 
of it, in this state, with a desire to become a proselyte to their opinion, 
yet I was compelled to yield to the force of early prejudice. Their 
dried meat, though it had not been subjected to the action of heat, or of 
lire, yet had not to the eye, the appearance of being raw, but resembled 
in colour, that which has been well boiled. It had been deprived of all 
ruddiness, by the intense cold. It is not easily cut across, though it 
admits readily of being broken, or stript in shreds, in the direction of 
the fibres, which are always distinctly marked, and easily separable: 
every muscle is completely enveloped in its own sac. 
Among the valuable and useful animals of Tibet, their breed of 
. \ 
sheep merits a distinguished rank. Their flocks are numerous; and 
upon them their chief reliance is placed for present support, as well as 
for their winter food. A peculiar species seems indigenous to this cli¬ 
mate, marked almost invariably, by black heads and legs. They are of 
a small size: their wool is soft, and their flesh, almost the only animal 
food eaten in Tibet, is, in my opinion, the finest mutton in the world. 
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