Part 171 - Load allocation, local customs, foraging, and Delphinium grandiflorum

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SUMMARY:
Describes the daily casting of lots for distributing loads among villagers and observations of women using black plasters and face paste recommended by lamas. Notes foraging mushrooms and wild gooseberries for tarts, local beliefs about tomatoes, and carrying Delphinium grandiflorum plants to obtain seed.

CONTENT:
about the weight of the loads, size & shape. There is a most intricate business every morning casting lots as to who or which village will take which loads. Everything is laid out in a line, lots are cast, then with a rush the men & women dash to the loads they think will be best, & off they go with a laugh. The women always amuse me with their blackened faces. They have, most of them, little round black plasters on their temples, put on by lamas to relieve pains in the head. Then sometimes they will cover all the face but the eyes & mouth with a black paste - to ensure a good complexion! - & then they look exactly like nigger minstrels, especially as they are always smiling & laughing. On the road we have come across some excellent mushrooms, & also lots of wild gooseberries. The locals don't seem to eat them; I suppose because they have no sugar. But we have had lovely gooseberry tarts. There are other things they don't eat too, like tomatoes. These, they say, give one syphilis, so I suppose they are astonished to see us picking any wild ones we find. Wherever it is damp enough, we still find a few of the Delphin. grandiflorum lovely blue delphinium (499). This causes a good deal of amusement. We have a few plants of it with us, hoping to get seed from the flowers in time.