Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/402

 Violet, green, and white, with a pattern of crosses, are also sometimes worn. The cloth, which is like a rough serge, is mostly woven in the Lhasa district. By the lower classes thick sheepskins with the wool inside are worn, the outer skin being trimmed with tiger-skin or red or blue cloth. In any case the gown is made very long. It is pulled over the head, and then fastened with a girdle, the gown being allowed to fall over the girdle in the form of a huge pocket, in which cash and other articles are often carried. In hot weather, when cooler gowns cannot be afforded, the wearer frequently puts out one or both arms, and lets the garment hang from the girdle. The hats worn by the Tibetans are sometimes the ordinary Chinese round skull-cap, or a brocade-trimmed brown felt, which is fur-lined for cold weather. In the winter, long leather boots are worn, while in the summer the men and women often go barefoot. Both sexes are very fond of jewellery, especially the Lhasaite. They wear ear-rings with turquoise pendants, silver bangles, bone thumb-rings, and amulet boxes. The women are especially lavish in their display of finery; coral and amber, but more particularly turquoise, being conspicuous. Around Lhasa the women smear their faces with thick black paste—a custom which it is said was instituted by the great Saint Dewo Rimpoche, to conceal their beauty. The Tibetans' chief food is tsamba, which is flour made of roasted barley and mixed into a paste with tea, butter, and salt. The consumption of tea is very large. It is boiled with salt, milk, and butter in large open stoves, until it resembles a kind of thick broth. Beef and mutton are also much used, but as a rule they are only partly cooked. Bread is seldom eaten. All Tibetans drink to excess, partaking for the most part of a kind of beer, made of barley, called chang. They are free from the habit of opium-smoking, but are very fond of tobacco and snuff, the Lamas confining themselves to the use of the latter.

In disposition the Tibetans are good-natured, cheerful, and friendly, yet easily roused. The imperative should