The Broad Bands Of
Turquoise, Worn Usually On The Forehead, Were For The Time Disrated
From Their Post Of Honour, And Were Suspended Instead From The Nape Of
The Neck, Over A Square Piece Of Stiff Cloth, Embroidered With Strings
Of Red Beads.
Round the shoulders, and hanging low, in order to show
off the turquoises, lumps of amber, and other family
Jewels, were
the sheepskin cloaks, inseparable from Thibetian female costume; they
were, however, of larger size than those of every day life, and were
gorgeously decorated outside in red and blue, the FUR merely appearing
at the edges. Below this, everything merged in some mysterious way
into the variegated sheepskin boots of the country, also decorated
with red, blue, and yellow cloth patterns on the instep. These bore a
very conspicuous position in the dance, as the ladies, contrary to the
principles of modern art, were continually regarding and showing forth
the aforesaid boots, as they glided about, and pattered the time to the
well-marked music. The dance was altogether much more pleasing than
the Indian nach, and the ladies, in spite of their savage jewellery,
and rude manner, were much more womanly and respectable than their
gauzy, be-ringed and bare-footed southern rivals.
After the dance was over, there was a general move to a large, open
space of ground, where the male part of the community were to show
off their prowess in the native games. To my astonishment, some fifty
or sixty Thibetians here assembled, each provided with a veritable
hockey stick, not on foot, however, but each man mounted on his own
little mountain pony, and prepared to play a downright game of hockey
on horseback.
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