An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

84 BOOTAN./ remarked, that the prettiest women I saw were employed iu carryingIwater into the palace.Though the lifeol a Gylong be in an extreme degree, sedentary andrecluse, yet, whether itmay be ascribed or not to regularity and temperance,they are certainly fairer in their complexions, and more athletic,than the rest of their countrymen.The former advantage, indeed,of which they boast, may be imputed to a very obvious cause ;as theyare less exposed to the weather, exempt from labour, and more attentiveto personal cleanliness, than the rest of their nation.We used to see them passing in procession, at the base of the eminenceon which our habitation stood, in order to cross the bridge, andproceed over a small plain, on the other side, to a little island, at ashort distance, where they undressed, and laved their brawny limbs inthe waters of the Tehintchieu,This resort of the Gylongs was visiblefrom our windows ;and as they went half naked into the water, sucha promiscuous assemblage, afforded a fair opportunity of forming ajust judgment of their figure: and I know not where in the world,an equal number of men would be met with, so straight, so well proportioned,and so stout. This may be taken as a general character: andI do not remember a single instance of deformity in the space throughwhich I have travelled, unless we reckon as such, the glandular swellingof the throat, of which 1shall presently speak more particularly.The Booteeas have invariably black hair, which it is their fiisiiion tocut, close to the head. The eye is a very remarkable feature of theface:small, black, with long pointed corners, as thougli stretched andextended by artificial means. Their eyelashes are so thin, as to be