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

;302 TIBET.prepared meat, during all the time I remained at Teshoo Loomboo,which had been cured in the preceding winter.It was perfectly sweet,though the fat is sometimes liable to become slightly rancid, on exposureto the air; and it is therefore usually kept in close boxes, till it iswanted Jbr use. I was accustomed to eat heartily of the meat thusprepared, without any further dressing, and at length grew fond of itthough I could not possibly surmount the prejudice I felt, against thatwhich was recently killed, and raw.My Tibet friends, however, gave an uniform and decided preferenceto the undressed crude meat ; and though I listened to their praisesof it,in this state, with a desire to become a proselyte to their opinion,yet I was compelled to yield to the force of early prejudice. Theirdried meat, though ithad not been subjected to the action of heat, or offire, yet had not to the eye, the appearance of being raw, but resembledin colour, that which has been well boiled. It had been deprived of allruddiness, by the intense cold. It is not easily cut across, though itadmits readily of being broken, or stript in shreds, in the direction ofthe fibres, whicii are always distinctly marked, and easilyseparable:every muscle iscompletely enveloped in its own sac.Among the valuable and useful animals of Tibet, their breed ofsheep merits a distinguished rank. Their flocks are numerous ; andupon them their chief reliance isplaced for present support, as well asfor their winter food.A peculiar species seems indigenous to this climate,marked almost invariably, by black heads and legs.They are ofa small size : their wool is soft, and their flesh, almost the only animalfood eaten in Tibet, is, in my opinion, the finest mutton in the world.