Horsemanship is taken—for granted among the nomads A Tibetan on foot is as heavy-footed and unsightly as a Mongol, but on a horse he can do anything. And everything is expected of a Tibetan pony. He is ridden over rocks and ice to teach him surefootedness. He receives no better feed at any season than the grass he finds for himself. In town he is tied up' to a post and forgotten. No one feeds him, He must have " smooth gait and be able to run down a wolf in broken country. When the Tibetan in town has sold his butter and skins, his musk and rhubarb, and has drunk himself into a state of utter helplessness, he lies on his back in the street and asks for hi horse. The hungry little beast is saddled and brought to him. Friends lift him "aboard" and be rides aw: into the grasse lands whooping and full of fight, but as competent a horseman as the soberest European.
The women set great store by coral and big silver buckles and spangles. Their coarse hair is ne into countless tiny plaits and hung with huge silver ornaments. The girls are pretty, but hard work soon converts them into great wrinkled squaws who woddie about grunting and scowling and throwing stones at dogs and settle with unerring accuracy. A Tibetan wife is an uncertain quantity and marriage entails long, elaborate ceremonies, frequently made colourfal by wild debauches and wilder fights. Constancy is a matter. of whim or convenience.
Unapproachable and shy as these people are, they are capable of great devotions and a Tibetan friend is annoyingly demonstrative, He gives you all manner of things, holds your hand for hours, or hangs upon you if you are walking. Chinese who marry the border women
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.