n passed the age required. An
unmarried girl who becomes _enceinte_, far from being exposed to the
scorn of every one, is shown the highest respect; for she is
demonstrated fruitful, and men eagerly seek her in marriage. A wife has
the unquestioned right of having an unlimited number of husbands and
lovers. If she likes a young man, she takes him home, announces that he
has been chosen by her as a "jingtuh" (a lover), and endows him with all
the personal rights of a husband, which situation is accepted by her
temporarily supplanted husbands with a certain philosophic pleasure,
which is the more pronounced if their wife has proved sterile during the
three first years of her marriage.

They certainly have here not even a vague idea of jealousy. The
Thibetan's blood is too cold to know love, which, for him, would be
almost an anachronism; if indeed he were not conscious that the
sentiment of the entire community would be against him, as a flagrant
violator of popular usage and established rights, in restraining the
freedom of the women. The selfish enjoyment of love would be, in their
eyes, an unjustifiable luxury.

In case of a husband's absence, his place may be offered to a bachelor
or a widower. The latter are here in the minority, since the wife
generally survives her feeble husbands. Sometimes a Buddhist traveller,
whom his affairs bring to the village, is chosen for this office. A
husband who travels, or seeks for work in the neighboring country, at
every stop takes advantage of his co-religionists' hospitality, who
offer him their own wives. The husbands of a sterile woman exert
themselves to find opportunities for hospitality, which may happily
eventuate in a change in her condition, that they may be made happy
fathers.

The wife enjoys the general esteem, is ever of a cheerful disposition,
takes part in everything that is going on, goes and comes without any
restriction, anywhere and everywhere she pleases, with the exception of
the principal prayer-room of the monastery, entrance into which is
formally prohibited to her.

Children know only their mother, and do not feel the least affection for
their fathers, for the simple reason that they have so many. Without
approving polyandry, I could not well blame Thibet for this institution,
since without it, the population would prodigiously increase. Famine and
misery would fall upon the whole nation, with all the sinister
_sequellae_ of murder and theft, crimes s