Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-01
SHE VISITED THIBET,

An English Girls Journey to the Bounds of
the Mysterious City.
From the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
VANCOUVER, June 14.-Miss Taylor Of Lon
don. England, the only woman who ever pene-
trated the interior of Thibet. was an arrival on
the steamer Empress Of Japan. She is small in
stature. Her hands and wrists are small, her
features fine. and her manner gentle and pleas
ant. In spite Of this fact Miss Taylor has
travelled where q man could not have gone and
lived. She was connected indirectly with a
China mission, but having sufficient means Of
her own, travelled about as fancy dictated. The
trade Of Thibet is held by China, and China is
jealous of having any one Of any other nation
enter the country, because they know wei! that if
"foreign devils ever get into the land Of the
Thibetans the Chinese trade monopoly is gone
The Chinese have guards all around the terri
tory, and far in the interior their spies to be
met.
Miss Taylor started out first with four SER
wants. and among them a Monaghan
Mohammedan, who coveted her belongings,
and thought it would be n meritorious thing
to kill her anyway This man gave her a lot
Of trouble. and his treachery at the end nearly
cost her her life and prevented her entry into
Lasss. the sacred city of the interior of Thibet,
Of which SO many strange stories are told. Miss
Taylor's party were twice stopped by bandits.
Once they took nearly all her things away. but
after discovering that her party were not men,
bers of the faction for which they had been
mistaken, some OF her goods were restored to
her. After many vicissitudes she reached the
Lassatdistrict and got to within few miles Of
Lassa city. Here she found that her treacher-
Gus servant had gone ahead and told the head
men that il they allowed her to enter the city
their lives would be forfeited to the Chinese
government; SO the authorities. when she came
up, told her they we're sorry, and would will
ingly let her enter the city, but they dared not
She was thus forced to turn back within sight
of her goal.
The Thibetans are a nomadic people, but
have one or two permanent towns Lassa, the
capital, being the largest. The people are gov
erned principally by the lamas or native priests.
They practice polyandry to q great extent,
many women having as many as three or four
husbands, who in many cases are brothers
The country is all very much above the sea
level, some II. 900 feet in the valleys, and she
suffered greatly from shortness Of breath The
Thibetans are herders. and many Of them are
splendid horsemen. They use a number Of
horses, and the OK in this country corresponds
to the yak in Thibet. The yak is larger than
the OK, and has q peculiar grunt like a pig.
Thibet is wet in summer and cold in winter
Miss Taylor has a Thibetan man servant with
her, whom she says has been faithful When
she finally reached the border exit was refused
this servant. but she said in the Thibetan Ian
guage, which she understands perfectly: "He
goes or do not You may kill me if you wish,
but my man must go. See you ths?" and she
drew from her breast a small sllken union jack
that she had carried through all her vicissi-
tudes. "Stan this flag with nv blood and the
great mother whose sign this flag is will
avenge my death" Strange to say, this OBJ
tanned her not only exit, but safe escort