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antelopes and gazelles, are to be obtained by those who toil sufficiently; while for nonsportsmen the curious monasteries perched on almost inaccessible rocks, with their Romish ceremonial, their prayer-wheels, their gigantic images and ancient manuscripts, form the chief attraction." But long before Tibet is approached from China Tibetan tribes are met with, as, indeed, Mr. Baber noted in his recent journey. Though the country lies in a comparatively low latitude, yet its great elevation renders it in the winter almost as cold as the Arctic regions. Owing, however, to the mountains and plains which intervene between it and the sea robbing the winds of their moisture, its excessive dryness prevents either the cold being so severely felt as otherwise it would be, or the country being unhealthy. Flesh exposed to the Tibetan air dries until it crumbles into powder, but it never putrefies. Wood does not rot, but it breaks from mere brittleness caused by the arid atmosphere, and a person dressed in sheepskins gives out long electric sparks when his garments approach any conducting substance. The very rocks during the winter crumble. into powder, and mixing their dust with that of the dry soil, are tossed up by the high wind in blinding clouds. The air is, however, bracing after one has got acclimatised to it, while a region in which there is perpetual snow at 16,000 to 18,000 feet, and where enormous glaciers exist, must act as a sanatorium to the jaded dweller in the moist, enervating plains of India, or even in the Asiatic khanates further west. At 18,544 feet—2,800 feet higher than on Mont Blanc, and 1,279 feet above the snow-line of the Andes in Ecuador-bushes and pastures make their appearance; and though lower down grazing land of a bare and scanty description stretches, yet cedars and birches-the only trees of the country-are only met with in a few very sheltered or comparatively moist places on the hills. Salt and other lakes of large size (p. 105) are not unfrequent, but watercourses and water generally are not characteristics of Tibet. In the plains the inhabitants are herdsmen, but in the valleys, where fruit-trees, the vine, and grain can be cultivated by aid of irrigation and the construction of terraces along the slopes, the people are for the most part agriculturists. Hence the skill and industry demanded of the Tibetan farmer have rendered him a peculiarly intelligent and hardy individual.

A nation so remote from the busy world cannot be expected to make great progress in arts or commerce; but the country is known to abound in silver, copper, and tin, though the absence of fuel renders these riches of little value. Gold mines are worked and jealously guarded by the Chinese, and the deposits of salt, borax, sulphur, and nitre are developed to a considerable extent. The produce is carried by caravans consisting of long trains of pack oxen, sheep, mules, and horses, the rivers being crossed by inflated skins. Jewellery and fabrics of wool and goats' hair, Buddhist idols, &c., are also traded to Nepaul and Bhotan; fine broadcloths and Indian manufactures are imported in exchange. A little trade was also done with Turkestan during Yakoob Beg's time, and this will very probably increase by-and-by. With China there is, however, a large traffic, the produce of Tibet being exchanged for tea, Chinese manufactures, and European cutlery.* The brick tea-trade is, however, the most important one in the country. Of late a most interesting

In Mr. Clements Markham's monumental introduction and notes to the "Narrative of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhassa," is given an almost exhaustive resumé of everything known about the country, or written regarding it, up to the date of that publication (1876).

report on this subject has been given by Mr. Colburne Baber, at that date of his journey British Consul at Chung-King, in a document so valuable that as the original is little known we may supply a condensation of it, supplemented by some notes derived from sources which the author has not drawn upon.

To the Tibetan, Mr. Baber remarks, tea is more than a luxury, it is an absolute

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necessary; a fact, indeed, noted by Horace della Penna, an old Capuchin friar, long resident at Lhassa, who wrote in 1730:-"The Tibetans drink a quality of tea made with milk, butter, and salt, and leave a little tea in the cup, in which they make a paste with barley-meal, and afterwards eat it." This statement is confirmed by Bogle, Turner, and Manning, and other later visitors, and though they differ as *Gazette of India, December, 1879: see also additional notes in the Standard (London), January 2, 1880.

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VIEW OF THE SALT LAKE OF TSOMORIRI, WESTERN TIBET.

to the quality and quantity of tea drunk by the Tibetans, it is undisputed that it constitutes their principal beverage morning, noon, and night, and that most of it comes from the province of Se-chuen (p. 38). Deprived of the costly, but indispensable, stimulant, he suffers from headache, grows nervous, restless, out of condition, and altogether unhappy. In outlying districts mothers are careful to keep the seductive beverage from their children for fear lest they should grow up unable, on occasion, to go without it. And yet, to European taste, the infusion, as prepared by the Tibetans, is the remotest possible imitation of tea. The Tibetan teapot is a wooden churn, much like a butter-churn, into which the boiling infusion is poured through a strainer; a little salt is added, and some twenty strokes applied with a dasher pierced with five holes. A lump of butter is then thrown in, and the compound is again churned with from 100 to 150 strokes, administered with much precision and regularity. The tea is then ready for drinking. It will be remarked that, with the substitution of salt for sugar, the Tibetan preparation is of much the same composition as the tea drunk in England; but the presence of the salt is not perceptible, and Mr. Baber could detect no flavour of tea. It is impossible accurately to describe the taste of the infusion; but to force a comparison, it is something like weak English tea with rich milk, but without any sugar or tea. And yet nobody

would mistake it for milk and water, still less for butter and water; for the tea principle affects the flavour, while itself becoming modified into some un-tea-like astringent. It is evident that astringency is the property desired, seeing that the many thousand Tibetans who cannot afford tea use oak bark in its stead. The teacup of the Tibetan is a wooden bowl, not seldom an object of high price and elaborate workmanship cased in precious metals and encrusted with jewels. In this he allows the tea to stand for a minute or two, and when the butter floats freely on the surface, he blows it off into another bowl. The national farinaceous food is "tsampa," flour of grilled corn. The consumer takes up a portion of this between the tips of his fingers and thumb, and opening them with a jerk flicks it over the butter; then moulding it into a consistency, he eats the immature pie-crust without further formality, washing it down with the tea. This is the characteristic nutriment of Tibetans. Two English pounds of butter and ten ounces of tea are considered by the latest observer a liberal, but not lavish, allowance for twenty drinkers for one day.

Mr. T. T. Cooper, who in 1879 was murdered at Bhamo, estimated the export of tea from Se-chuen at only six million pounds annually. Mr. Baber places it at ten millions, though the Tibetans are contented with the most inferior qualities it is possible to manufacture from the refuse of the crop. The poorest Chinaman in Chung-King pays ten times as much for his tea as does the Tibetan. It is, therefore, allowable to conclude that the article sold to the latter is ten times worse, and that this fact holds out some hope for the Assam and Bengal tea merchants being able to run the Chinese out of the market by the introduction of a better quality of their favourite herb. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any really good tea ever reaches Tibet, a supposition borne out by the observations of Mr. Manning, who in 1811 was sent by Warren Hastings on an embassy to Lhassa. Yet the Tibetans are willing to pay for good tea prices of which half a rupee the pound may be taken as the minimum.

As far as Ba'tang is concerned, Mr. Baber considers that there is little prospect

of an outlet for Indian tea; but it is difficult to conceive how the idea of trading between Assam and that place could ever have been conceived. It possibly arose from an impression that Ba'tang is a Chinese city, whereas it is a small Tibetan town of 200 houses, eighteen days distant from the true Chinese border, by a track which, practically closed in winter, crosses four passes at various elevations between 14,000 and 17,000 feet, according to the careful and corrected observations of Captain Gill, R.E.* Moreover, when the Chinese border is reached at Ta-chienlu, the nearest city of any importancenamely, Yachou-is still seven or eight days distant, and has water communication with the sea. Setting aside for the moment the Tibetan roads, the only practicable way from Assam to Ba'tang is across the Patkoi to Burmah, thence into Yun-nan by the Irrawaddy track, and so northwards by Weisee, a distance of 750 miles-a two months' journey at least in such a country, whereby on arrival at Ba'tang the freight alone, calculated at Tibetan rates, would be half as much again as the market price of Chinese tea. The most direct road would of course be through Tibetan territory; but if Tibet be opened, no purpose can be served by going to Ba'tang. "That town is a "That town is a junction of high roads to Se-chuen, Yun-nan, and Lhassa, and is consequently a point of great political importance to the Chinese Government. But its sole commercial significance worth the name, although there is a good deal of peddlery, is derived from the passage through it of Yerkalo salt and Yachou tea on their way westwards." Goods-salt among others-is carried in the country on the backs of sheep, each sheep being laden with about 25 lbs. They are very obedient to their drovers' whistles, and if any of them get out of the way, they are easily brought back by the shepherds' dogs. Assam is admirably placed for taking the tea trade in flank, and might even supply Western Tibet "without seriously affecting the Yachou export, since the whole quantity of the latter would only suffice for the consumption of a million Tibetans. The difficulty of crossing the Himalayas may be adduced as the most obvious impediment; but if any track whatever exists-as we know it does-it cannot be more formidable than the icy passes encountered by Abbé Huc on his journey from Lhassa to Ta-chienlu by the Chinese tea-route." The districts where good tea would sell most easily and advantageously are those which are furthest removed from the Chinese tea-route, or, in other words, from those which are nearest to Assam. It is superfluous to remark that the merest sweepings of the Assam "godowns" would make better tea than the Tibetans have ever drunk.

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The Lhassa Government-according to Mr. Kinny-force the sale of tea on their subjects by issuing a certain quality of it to the governor of each province, and debiting him with the price of it. In order to be no loser by the transaction, he issues a quantity to each family, according to their wealth and status, whether they want it or not, and fixes the price himself. Only the poorest are passed over in this extraordinary method of "pushing a trade."

"It is generally assumed," Mr. Baber goes on to say, "that the obstacles to intercommunication are of a physical nature; but if so, there would be no trade, whereas evidences of a very extensive exchange abound, even so far east as Ta-chienlu, in the use of rupees * Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XLVIII. (1878), p. 57, and "The River of Golden Sand" (1880)..

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