Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
Did I say the Kamkatdales are grateful? I will give you an instance of
their gratitude. A traveller met a poor boy. He remembered his face, and
said, "I think I have seen you before." "You have," said the boy; "I
rowed you down the river last summer, and you were so kind as to give me
a skin, and some flints; and now I have brought the skin of a sable as a
present for you." The traveller, perceiving the boy had no shirt, and
that his skin dress was tattered, refused the present; but seeing the boy
was going away in tears, he called him back, and accepted it. A Chinese
servant, who was standing by, pitied so much the ragged condition of the
boy, that he gave him one of his own thin nankin shirts.
THIBET.
I cannot tell you much about Thibet; and the reason is, that so few
travellers have been there. And why have so few been there? Is it because
the mountains are so steep and high, the paths so narrow and dangerous?
All this is true; but it is not mountains that keep travellers out of
Thibet; it is the Chinese government; for Thibet belongs to China, and
you know how carefully the emperor of China keeps strangers out of his
empire.
How did the Chinese get possession of Thibet? A long while ago, a Hindoo
army invaded the land, and the people in their fright sent to China for
help. The Chinese came, drove away the Hindoos, and stayed themselves.
They are not hard masters, they govern very mildly; only they require a
sum of money to be sent every year to Pekin, as tribute.
But though Thibet belongs to China, the Chinese language is not spoken
there.
The people are like the Tartars in appearance; they have the same bony
face, sharp black eye, and straight black hair; but a much fresher
complexion, owing to the fresh mountain air they breathe.
The Himalaya mountains, the highest in Asia, lie between Thibet and
Hindostan. Their peaks are always covered with snow, and rapid streams
pour down the rugged sides. The snow on the mountain-tops makes Thibet
very cold; but there are warm valleys where grapes, and even rice
flourish.
The people build their houses in the warmest spots they can find; they
try to find a place sheltered from the north wind, by a high rock, and
lying open to the south sun. Their dwellings are only made of stones,
heaped together, and the roofs are flat. Their riches consist in flocks
of sheep and goats. They have, another animal, which is not known in
England, and yet a very useful creature, because, like a cow, it yields
rich milk, and like a horse, it carries burdens. This animal is called
the Yak, and resembles both a horse and a cow. Its chief beauty is its
tail, which is much finer than a horse's tail, and is black, and glossy,
soft and flowing. Many of these tails are sent to India, where they are
used as fly-flappers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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