of Tibet have adopted the Chinese-pattern boots of leather,
with heavy leather or wooden soles and enormous nails under them.

[Illustration: MAN'S BOOT, MADE AT SIGATZ--SNOW BOOT]

[Illustration: WOMAN'S BOOT--BOOT MADE IN LHASSA]

The Tibetans have innumerable varieties of headgear. The most peculiar of
all, worn chiefly by soldiers and dacoits, is one in the form of a
section of a cone with large rim, made entirely of twisted cord like that
used for the soles of the boots, and with a hole at the top for
ventilation. The conical part being too small to fit the head, it is held
upon the skull by means of two strings tied under the chin. There are
also conical brown and grey felt ones, not unlike filters used in
chemical laboratories, and these, when of the better quality, are
frequently ornamented with gold, blue, or red embroidery of Chinese
manufacture. An impressive headgear was worn by the medicine man attached
to the band of robbers I had interviewed. It resembled at first sight an
exaggerated jockey's cap of red silk, but closer examination showed that
it consisted of two long strips of red silk, well stretched on a light
frame of bamboo, set at an angle of about 90 deg.. This hat was held on the
head by means of a band round the back of the head, and it projected some
fifteen inches over the forehead. In addition to these there are of
course common cloth or fur caps with ear-flaps; and it is not uncommon to
see, in Tibet, soldiers wearing a silk kamarband bound tightly round the
head, turban-fashion, with one end left hanging down over the ear. The
commoner Tibetan, however, is not fond of covering his head, and though
he often has one or more caps stowed away in the loose folds of his coat,
he seldom wears one on his head under ordinary circumstances. This does
not apply to officials, who are never seen without a circular cap of
Chinese shape, surmounted by a top-knot. All men, except the Lamas, who
shave their heads clean, wear a pigtail, short and shaggy at times, or
long and ornamented with a piece of cloth, in which it is sewn, and
passed through rings of ivory, bone, glass, metal, or coral. Ornaments of
silver, such as perforated coins, are much used in adorning the men's
pigtails, and coral and malachite ornaments are also common in Tibet for
the same purpose, and are much valued by the natives. Men wear, passed
through the lobe of the ear, an earring with malachite ornamentations,
and often with an add