e of
devotion; the women who daub themselves most disgustingly being reputed
the most pious. In the country places the edict is observed with
scrupulous exactitude, and to the entire approbation of the censors; but
at Lha-Ssa, it is not unusual to meet in the streets women, who, setting
law and decency at defiance, actually have the impudence to show
themselves in public with their faces unvarnished, and such as nature
made them. Those, however, who permit themselves this license, are in
very ill odour, and always take care to get out of the way of the police.

It is said that the edict of the Nomekhan has been greatly promotive of
the public morality. We are not in a position to affirm the contrary,
with decision, but we can affirm that the Thibetians are far indeed from
being exemplary in the matter of morality. There is lamentable
licentiousness amongst them, and we are disposed to believe that the
blackest and ugliest varnish is powerless to make corrupt people
virtuous. Christianity can alone redeem the pagan nations from the
shameful vices in which they wallow.

At the same time, there is one circumstance which may induce us to
believe that in Thibet there is less corruption than in certain other
pagan countries. The women there enjoy very great liberty. Instead of
vegetating, prisoners in the depths of their houses, they lead an active
and laborious life. Besides fulfilling the various duties of the
household, they concentrate in their own hands all the petty trade of the
country, whether as hawkers, as stall-keepers in the streets, or in
shops. In the rural districts, it is the women who perform most of the
labours of agriculture.

The men, though less laborious and less active than the women, are still
far from passing their lives in idleness. They occupy themselves
especially with spinning and weaving wool. The stuffs they manufacture,
which are called poulou, are of a very close and solid fabric;
astonishingly various in quality, from the coarsest cloths to the finest
possible Merino. By a rule of reformed Buddhism, every Lama must be
attired in red poulou. The consumption of the article in Thibet itself
is very large, and the caravans export considerable quantities of it to
Northern China and Tartary. The coarser poulou is cheap, but the
superior qualities are excessively dear.

The pastile-sticks, so celebrated in China, under the name of Tsan-Hiang
(perfumes of Thibet), are an article of