TEN PONIES FOR A WIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 4 (Supplement)

TEN PONIES FOR A WIFE.

A Peculiar Story of Married Life in Tibet.

Among the Tibetans a man marries only

one wife, whom he purchases from he r parents, a belle often costing as much as ten ponies and thirty yaks. The price to be paid for the wife is arranged by a relative or a friend who acts as go-between, and the only marriage ceremony is a grand spree, lasting as long as the bridegroom can afford to keep it up. The life of a Tibetan woman in this part of the country cannob be deemed a hard one. She makes the tea, it is true, bub with that the housekeeping ends ; for no one ever dreams of cleaning the kettle afterwards, and every one has to mix his own tsamba and lick his bowl clean when he has finished. Every four or five years she may have to sew a new sheepskin gown for herself or for some one of her family, bub certainly nob oftener. She cannot herd the cattle or sheep ; men must do that, as there is danger from marauders. She passes her time spinning yarn, weaving a coarse kind of cloth out of which bags are made, turning a prayer wheel, and—destroying too voracious vermin. Her toileb requires rearranging only four or five times a year—when she visits Kumbum or some other fair ; she never washes herself or her garments, and her children cannot outgrow their clothes. They have only to let out a little the folds of the gown, their unique garment, tucked up around the waist, and ib will fib them until they are grown up.— * Century.'