The
Lamas Are Provided, By The Custom Of Dedicating In Every Family Of Two
Or More, One To That Office; Should There Be A Number Of Girls In A
Family, All Those That Do Not Marry Become Nuns, And Adopt The Male
Attire Of Red And Yellow.
The nuns, however, seem to be by no means
kept in confinement; they work in the fields, and one of them enlisted
with us as a coolie, and brought her load into camp before any of her
male coadjutors.
Among other curious information my friend told me,
that the Thibetians by no means consider that each man is entitled
to the luxury of a wife all to himself; but that a family of four
or five brothers frequently have but one between them, and that the
system is productive of no ill-feeling whatever among the different
members.[24] He also pointed out a fact which I had not before noticed,
viz., that the Thibetians invariably pass to the right hand of these
piles of stones and other monuments, but for what reason he was
unable to inform me.[25] Having finished his stock of information,
which I received thank-fully in default of better, he told me, with
delightful coolness, that it was the proper thing for me to give him
a bottle of brandy for the Kardar, and that it would be necessary to
send also a corkscrew with the bottle, to enable him to get at it! The
impudence of the request was almost worth the bottle, but brandy
was too scarce and precious a commodity to justify us in pleasing
the Kardar, so that all I could do was politely to decline sending
the corkscrew or the bottle either.
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