The wooden cups or bowls used by the Tibetans are called _puku, fruh_, or _cariel_, and in them _tsamba_ is also eaten after tea has been poured on it, and the mixture worked into a paste by means of more or less dirty fingers. Often extra lumps of butter are mixed with this paste, and even bits of _chura_ (cheese). The richer people (officials) indulge in flour and rice, which they import from India and China, and in _kassur_, or dried fruit (namely, dates and apricots) of inferior quality. The rice is boiled into a kind of soup called the _tukpa_, a great luxury only indulged in on grand occasions, when such other cherished delicacies as _gimakara_ (sugar) and _shelkara_ (lump white sugar) are also eaten. The Tibetans are very fond of meat, though few can afford such an extravagance. Wild game, yak and sheep are considered excellent food, and the meat and bone cut in pieces are boiled in a cauldron with lavish quantities of salt and pepper. The several people in a tent dip their hands into the pot, and having picked up suitable pieces, tug at them with their teeth and fingers, grinding even the bone, meat eaten without bone being supposed to be difficult to digest. The Tibetan tents are usually furnished with a few _tildih_ (rough sitting-mats) round the fireplace, and near the entrance of the tent stands a _dahlo_, or basket, in which the dung is stored as collected. These _dahlos_, used in couples, are very convenient for tying to pack-saddles, for which purpose they are specially designed. Along the walls of the tent are the _tsamgo_ or bags of _tsamba_, and the _dongmo_ or butter-pots, and among masses of sheepskins and blankets can be seen the little wooden chests in which the store of butter is kept under lock and key. [Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF A TENT] The first thing that strikes the eye on entering a Tibetan tent is the _chokseh_ or table, upon which are lights and brass bowls containing offerings to the _Chogan_, the gilt god to whom the occupiers of the _gurr_ (tent) address their morning and evening prayers. Prayer-wheels and strings of beads are plentiful, and lashed upright to the poles are the long matchlocks belonging to the men, their tall props projecting well out of the aperture in the roof of the tent. Spears are kept in a similar manner, but the swords and smaller knives are carried about the person all day, and laid on the ground by the side of their owners at night. [Illustration: TSAMGO] [Illustration: SMALL TSAMBA BAG, CARRIED ON THE PERSON BY TIBETANS] CHAPTER LXIV Refusal to sell food--Women--Their looks and characteristics--The _Tchukti_--A Lhassa lady.