Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/122

114 the fields, when it is all collected into a big heap and left to ferment there from a fortnight to three weeks, after which it is spread over the land.

The larger houses have one or more wings and a veranda. The floor forming the roof is made in the same way as the other, only there is an addition of cow-dung to the mud instead of planks, and the plaster thus made is beaten for days with sticks to make it amalgamate, as in India. All cracks, as the plaster dries, are carefully filled up with fresh plaster till the whole is a good solid roof and floor combined, and very well adapted for thrashing.

The common-room is the kitchen on the first floor in which they all sleep, with their heads toward the fireplace, never with their feet toward the fire, as that is considered an insult or affront in their etiquette. In summer they sleep on the roof.

The Thibetans who live in the valleys are not as a rule fine men physically, but the highlanders, or hill-men, such as the shepherds, etc., up in the high Thibetan mountains, are massive beaux hommes, having somewhat the appearance of having been hewed out of solid blocks.

The people of the valleys are more or less idle gossips, disliking work intensely. The men do no work in the fields except plowing, and few who can afford to pay another to do it for them will do even that much. When not in repose—i. e., when not absolutely doing nothing—the men occupy themselves by sewing, spinning, looking after the mules, horses, and cattle, but above all in attending to the petty business of the family. The women sow, irrigate, weed, cut the harvest, thrash, winnow, carry the grain to the granary, and do all the housework as well. If there are loads to be carried, the women carry them. If a man be asked to carry a big case or heavy load, he is certain, on seeing it, to say at once, "That! that's a woman's load," and of the baggage he will select the smallest parcel he can find as his burden. In the pasturages, the women milk, make the butter, and look after the flocks when these are grazing near the tents or encampment. The men herd the flocks when grazing at a distance. The women ride as well as the men, and in the same fashion. From constantly throwing stones at the cattle the women are adepts at this, and can and do make it very unpleasant for any person who may have irritated them into putting their science into practice. Dirt is the ruling feature everywhere in Thibetan households. It pervades their houses and their persons, prevails in their customs, and gives a tone to and bears fruit in their speech.

A European, an English official in India, once desiring to see the real color of the Thibetan skin, paid the parents of a child to have it washed in hot water, several waters, and with an unlimited supply of soap. Every effort was made in vain, the skin could not be reached through such an armor-plating of dirt It is said with every show of