In country districts the Tibetan women plait their hair
into numerous thin tails which hang down behind and are
collected together into one queue below the waist ; but in
the cities they wear the ordinary queue, quite half of which
is artificial, piled on the top of the head and finished off
with two tassels of red or green silk bound with silver
wire.
But perhaps it would be more correct to speak of the
Tibetans of the Mekong valley, rather than of the province
of Kham, for they differ greatly in different parts of this
country. At A-tun-tsi is one type, at Pang-tsi-la another
quite distinct type, and at Batang yet a third, though it is
evident that all these people are nevertheless Tibetans,
and resemble each other more closely, for example, than the



Plate X







An Oasis in the Mekong Valley arid region north of Yang-tsa




Tibetan traders at Wei-hsi



A-tun-tsi 55

Lutzu resemble the Mosos, or either of these tribes the
Chinese.
At Yang-tsa a woman asked me for medicine, and after
one of the soldiers had told me what was the matter with
her, and I had taken her temperature, I gave her certain
tabloids and directions with magical effect, for next morning
she was very much better and came out to my tent to thank
me. This young woman was twenty-three years of age
and had three children, the eldest being just seven.
