o practise the art
of making musical instruments and eating-vessels out of human bones. The
skull is used for making drinking-cups, _tsamba_ bowls, and single and
double drums. The bone of the upper arm, thigh-bone, and shin-bone are
turned into trumpets and pipes. These particular Lamas are said to
relish human blood, which they drink out of the cups made from men's
skulls.

When I left the Gomba--my new friends, the Lamas, bowing down to the
ground as I departed--I walked about the village to examine all there
was to be seen.

Along the water's edge at the east end of the village stood in a row a
number of tumbling-down Choktens of mud and stone. These structures
consisted of a square base surmounted by a moulding, and an upper
decoration in ledges, topped by a cylindrical column. Each was supposed
to contain a piece of bone, cloth, or metal, and books or parts of them,
that had once belonged to a great man or a saint. Roughly drawn images
were occasionally found in them. In rare cases, when cremation had been
applied, the ashes were collected in a small earthenware urn and
deposited in one of the Choktens. The ashes were made into a paste with
clay, and then flattened into a medallion on which a representation of
Buddha was either stamped from a mould or engraved with a pointed tool.

The interior of the houses at Tucker was no better than the outside.
Each habitation had a walled court-yard. The top of the wall, as well as
the edge of the flat roof of the house, was lined with masses of
tamarisk for fuel. In the court-yard sheep and goats were penned at
night. The human beings who occupied the rooms were dirty beyond all
description. There were hundreds of flying-prayers over the monastery,
as well as over each house. The people, laughing and chatting, stood on
the roofs watching us.

While I was strolling about some fifty or sixty men armed with
matchlocks and swords appeared on the scene. I looked upon them with
suspicion, but Kachi reassured me, and said they were not soldiers, but
a powerful band of robbers encamped about half a mile off, and on
friendly terms with the Lamas. As a precaution I loaded my rifle. This
was quite sufficient to cause a stampede of the armed crowd, followed,
in the panic, by all the other villagers who had collected round us.
Like all Tibetans, they were a miserable lot, though powerfully built
and with plenty of bluster about them.

Early in the morning I had made inquiries abou