project. After several excuses, we were at last fain to
leave our warm beds; we donned our clothes, and the door being opened,
some Thibetians of our acquaintance rushed into our room, inviting us to
the new year's banquet. They all bore in their hands a small vessel made
of baked earth, in which floated on boiling water, balls composed of
honey and flour. One of these visitors offered us a long silver needle,
terminating in a hook, and invited us to fish in his basin. At first, we
sought to excuse ourselves, objecting that we were not in the habit of
taking food during the night, but they entreated us in so engaging a
manner, they put out their tongues at us with so friendly a grace, that
we were obliged to resign ourselves to the Louk-So. We each hooked a
ball, which we then crushed between our teeth to ascertain its flavour.
We looked at each other, making grimaces; however, for politeness sake,
we had to swallow the dose. If we could only have got off with this
first act of devotion! but the Louk-So was inexorable; the numerous
friends we had at Lha-Ssa succeeded each other almost without
interruption, and we had perforce to munch Thibetian sweetmeats till
daybreak.

The second Louk-So also consists in making visits, but with a different
ceremony. As soon as the dawn appears, the Thibetians walk through the
streets of the town, carrying in one hand a pot of buttered tea, and in
the other a large gilt and varnished plate, filled with tsamba, piled up
in the form of a pyramid, and surmounted by three ears of barley. On
these occasions, it is not allowed to pay visits without the tsamba and
the buttered tea. As soon as you have entered the house of a person to
whom you propose to wish a happy year, you first of all make three
prostrations before the domestic altar, which is solemnly adorned and
illuminated; then, after having burnt some leaves of cedar, or other
aromatic tree, in a large copper censer, you offer to every one present a
cup of tea, and hand the plate, from which each takes a pinch of tsamba.
The people of the house reciprocate the compliment to the visitors. The
inhabitants of Lha-Ssa have a saying, the Thibetians celebrate the
festival of the new year with tsamba and buttered tea; the Chinese with
red paper and crackers; the Katchi with delicate meats and tobacco; the
Peboun with songs and sports.

Although this popular saying is correct enough, the Pebouns do not
altogether monopolize the g