Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/224

 hundred and twenty gya-tsug, or postal stages, of about 80 to 90 lebor each. This distance of nearly 10,000 lebor is required to be traversed in seventy-two days. Couriers are generally allowed a delay of five days, but when they exceed that they are punished. On occasions of very great importance and urgency the express rate to Peking is thirty-six days. During the last affray between the junior Amban and the people of Shigatse the express took a month and a half to reach Peking.

As regards the administration of justice and the laws of Tibet, the following peculiarities may be noted: Both parties in a suit make written statements of their case, and these briefs are read in court.

The judge has the evidence, depositions, and his decision written down, three copies of the latter being given to the parties concerned. Then he states the law fee (tim tég) and. the engrossing fee (myug-rin), both of which vary with the importance of the case, and are borne by both parties to the suit.

The death punishment is only inflicted in certain cases of dacoity (chagpa), when those convicted are sewed in leather bags and thrown into a river.

Offences of a less heinous nature are dealt with by banishment to the borders, whipping, imprisonment, or fines.

Nothing can be more horrible and loathsome than a Tibetan jail. There are some dungeons in an obscure village two days' journey up the river from Tashilhunpo, where life convicts are sent for confinement. The prisoner having been placed in a cell, the door is removed and the opening filled up with stone masonry, only one small aperture, about six inches in diameter, being left, through which the unhappy creature is supplied with his daily food. There are also a few small holes left open on the roof, through which the guards and the jailor empty every kind of filth into the cell. Some prisoners have lived for two years under this horrible treatment, while others, more fortunate, die in a few months.