At All Events, The Finest
Specimen Of The Tame Yak I Ever Saw, Was Not In Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, Or
Bootan, But In The Jardin Des Plantes At Paris; And That One, A Male,
Was Brought From Shanghai.
The best drawing of a Yak I know is that in
Turner's Tibet."
[Lieutenant Samuel Turner gave a very good description of the Yak of
Tartary, which he calls Soora-Goy or the Bushy-tailed Bull of Tibet.
(Asiat. Researches, No. XXIII, pp. 351-353, with a plate.) He says with
regard to the colour: "There is a great variety of colours amongst them,
but black or white are the most prevalent. It is not uncommon to see the
long hair upon the ridge of the back, the tail, tuft upon the chest, and
the legs below the knee white, when all the rest of the animal is jet
black." A good drawing of "an enormous" Yak is to be found on p. 183 of
Captain Wellby's Unknown Tibet. (See also Captain Deasy's work on
Tibet, p. 363.) Prince Henri d'Orleans brought home a fine specimen,
which he shot during his journey with Bonvalot; it is now exhibited in the
galleries of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Some Yaks were brought to
Paris on the 1st April, 1854, and the celebrated artist, Mme. Rosa
Bonheur, made sketches after them. (See Jour. Soc. Acclimatation, June,
1900, 39-40.) - H. C.]
Captain Prjevalsky, in his recent journey (1872-1873), shot twenty wild
Yaks south of the Koko Nor. He specifies one as 11 feet in length
exclusive of the tail, which was 3 feet more; the height 6 feet. He speaks
of the Yak as less formidable than it looks, from apathy and stupidity,
but very hard to kill; one having taken eighteen bullets before it
succumbed.
[Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, 151, note) writes: "The average load carried by
a Yak is about 250 lbs. The wild Yak bull is an enormous animal, and the
people of Turkestan and North Tibet credit him with extraordinary
strength. Mirza Haidar, in the Tarikhi Rashidi, says of the wild Yak or
kutas: 'This is a very wild and ferocious beast. In whatever manner it
attacks one it proves fatal. Whether it strikes with its horns, or kicks,
or overthrows its victim. If it has no opportunity of doing any of these
things, it tosses its enemy with its tongue twenty gaz into the air, and
he is dead before reaching the ground. One male kutas is a load for
twelve horses. One man cannot possibly raise a shoulder of the animal.'"
- Captain Deasy (In Tibet, 363) says: "In a few places on lofty ground in
Tibet we found Yaks in herds numbering from ten to thirty, and sometimes
more. Most of the animals are black, brown specimens being very rare. Their
roving herds move with great agility over the steep and stony ground,
apparently enjoying the snow and frost and wind, which seldom fail.... Yaks
are capable of offering formidable resistance to the sportsman....'" - H.
C.]
The tame Yaks are never, I imagine, "caught young," as Marco says; it is a
domesticated breed, though possibly, as with buffaloes in Bengal, the
breed may occasionally be refreshed by a cross of wild blood. They are
employed for riding, as beasts of burden, and in the plough. [Lieutenant
S. Turner, l.c., says, on the other hand: "They are never employed in
agriculture, but are extremely useful as beasts of burthen." - H. C.] In
the higher parts of our Himalayan provinces, and in Tibet, the Yak itself
is most in use; but in the less elevated tracts several breeds crossed
with the common Indian cattle are more used. They have a variety of names
according to their precise origin. The inferior Yaks used in the plough
are ugly enough, and "have more the appearance of large shaggy bears than
of oxen," but the Yak used for riding, says Hoffmeister, "is an infinitely
handsomer animal. It has a stately hump, a rich silky hanging tail nearly
reaching the ground, twisted horns, a noble bearing, and an erect head."
Cunningham, too, says that the Dso, one of the mixed breeds, is "a very
handsome animal, with long shaggy hair, generally black and white." Many
of the various tame breeds appear to have the tail and back white, and
also the fringe under the body, but black and red are the prevailing
colours. Some of the crossbred cows are excellent milkers, better than
either parent stock.
Notice in this passage the additional and interesting particulars given by
Ramusio, e.g. the use of the mixed breeds. "Finer than silk," is an
exaggeration, or say an hyberbole, as is the following expression, "As
big as elephants," even with Ramusio's apologetic quasi. Caesar says the
Hercynian Urus was magnitudine paullo infra elephantos.
The tame Yak is used across the breadth of Mongolia. Rubruquis saw them at
Karakorum, and describes them well. Mr. Ney Elias tells me he found Yaks
common everywhere along his route in Mongolia, between the Tui river
(long. circa 101 deg.) and the upper valleys of the Kobdo near the Siberian
frontier. At Uliasut'ai they were used occasionally by Chinese settlers
for drawing carts, but he never saw them used for loads or for riding, as
in Tibet. He has also seen Yaks in the neighbourhood of Kwei-hwa-ch'eng.
(Tenduc, see ch. lix. note 1.) This may be taken as the eastern limit of
the employment of the Yak; the western limit is in the highlands of
Khokand.
These animals had been noticed by Cosmas [who calls them agriobous] in
the 6th century, and by Aelian in the 3rd. The latter speaks of them as
black cattle with white tails, from which fly-flappers were made for
Indian kings. And the great Kalidasa thus sang of the Yak, according to a
learned (if somewhat rugged) version ascribed to Dr. Mill. The poet
personifies the Himalaya: -
"For Him the large Yaks in his cold plains that bide
Whisk here and there, playful, their tails' bushy pride,
And evermore flapping those fans of long hair
Which borrowed moonbeams have made splendid and fair,
Proclaim at each stroke (what our flapping men sing)
His title of Honour, 'The Dread Mountain King.'"
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