' Chang, a dirty-looking beer made from
barley, was offered with each meal, and tea frequently, but I took my
own 'on the sly.' I have mentioned a churn as part of the
'plenishings' of the living-room. In Tibet the churn is used for
making tea! I give the recipe. 'For six persons. Boil a teacupful
of tea in three pints of water for ten minutes with a heaped dessert-
spoonful of soda. Put the infusion into the churn with one pound of
butter and a small tablespoonful of salt. Churn until as thick as
cream.' Tea made after this fashion holds the second place to chang
in Tibetan affections. The butter according to our thinking is
always rancid, the mode of making it is uncleanly, and it always has
a rank flavour from the goatskin in which it was kept. Its value is
enhanced by age. I saw skins of it forty, fifty, and even sixty
years old, which were very highly prized, and would only be opened at
some special family festival or funeral.
During the three days of our visits to Hundar both men and women wore
their festival dresses, and apparently abandoned most of their
ordinary occupations in our honour. The men were very anxious that I
should be 'amused,' and made many grotesque suggestions on the
subject.
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