Of a great troop of wild Yaks, caught in the upper waters
of the Kin-sha Kiang, as they swam, in the moment of congelation, and thus
preserved throughout the winter, gigantic "flies in amber."
(N. et E. XIV. 478; J. As. IX. 199; J. A. S. B. IX. 566, XXIV. 235;
Shaw, p. 91; Ladak, p. 210; Geog. Magazine, April, 1874;
Hoffmeister's Travels, p. 441; Rubr. 288; Ael. de Nat. An. XV. 14;
J. A. S. B. I. 342; Mrs. Sinnett's Huc, pp. 228, 235.)
NOTE 4. - Ramusio adds that the hunters seek the animal at New Moon, at
which time the musk is secreted.
The description is good except as to the four tusks, for the musk deer
has canine teeth only in the upper jaw, slender and prominent as he
describes them. The flesh of the animal is eaten by the Chinese, and in
Siberia by both Tartars and Russians, but that of the males has a strong
musk flavour.
The "immense number" of these animals that existed in the Himalayan
countries may be conceived from Tavernier's statement, that on one visit
to Patna, then the great Indian mart for this article, he purchased 7673
pods of musk. These presumably came by way of Nepal; but musk pods of the
highest class were also imported from Khotan via Yarkand and Leh, and the
lowest price such a pod fetched at Yarkand was 250 tankas, or upwards of
4l. This import has long been extinct, and indeed the trade in the
article, except towards China, has altogether greatly declined, probably
(says Mr. Hodgson) because its repute as a medicine is becoming fast
exploded. In Sicily it is still so used, but apparently only as a sort of
decent medical viaticum, for when it is said "the Doctors have given him
musk," it is as much as to say that they have given up the patient.
["Here Marco Polo speaks of musk; musk and rhubarb (which he mentions
before, Sukchur, ch. xliii.) are the most renowned and valuable of the
products of the province of Kansu, which comparatively produces very
little; the industry in both these articles is at present in the hands of
the Tanguts of that province [Su chow chi]." (Palladius, p. 18.)
Writing under date 15th February, 1892, from Lusar (coming from Sining),
Mr. Rockhill says: "The musk trade here is increasing, Cantonese and
Ssu-ch'uanese traders now come here to buy it, paying for good musk four
times its weight in silver (ssu huan, as they say). The best test of its
purity is an examination of the colour. The Tibetans adulterate it by
mixing tsamba and blood with it. The best time to buy it is from the
seventh to the ninth moon (latter part of August to middle of November)."
Mr. Rockhill adds in a note: "Mongols call musk owo; Tibetans call it
latse. The best musk they say is 'white musk,' tsahan owo in Mongol,
in Tibetan latse karpo. I do not know whether white refers to the colour
of the musk itself or to that of the hair on the skin covering the musk
pouch." (Diary of a Journey, p. 71.) - H. C.]
Three species of the Moschus are found in the Mountains of Tibet, and
M. Chrysogaster which Mr. Hodgson calls "the loveliest," and which
chiefly supplies the highly-prized pod called Kaghazi, or
"Thin-as-paper," is almost exclusively confined to the Chinese frontier.
Like the Yak, the Moschus is mentioned by Cosmas (circa A.D. 545), and
musk appears in a Greek prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician
practising at Constantinople about the same date.
(Martini, p. 39; Tav., Des Indes, Bk. II. ch. xxiv.; J. A. S. B. XI.
285; Davies's Rep. App. p. ccxxxvii.; Dr. Flueckiger in Schweiz.
Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie, 1867; Heyd, Commerce du Levant, II.
636-640.)
NOTE 5. - The China pheasant answering best to the indications in the text,
appears to be Reeves's Pheasant. Mr. Gould has identified this bird with
Marco's in his magnificent Birds of Asia, and has been kind enough to
show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 6 feet 8 inches. The
tail feathers alone, however, are said to reach to 6 and 7 feet, so that
Marco's ten palms was scarcely an exaggeration. These tail-feathers are
often seen on the Chinese stage in the cap of the hero of the drama, and
also decorate the hats of certain civil functionaries.
[Illustration: Reeves's Pheasant]
Size is the point in which the bird fails to meet Marco's description.
In that respect the latter would rather apply to the Crossoptilon
auritum, which is nearly as big as a turkey, or to the glorious Munal
(Lopophorus impeyanus), but then that has no length of tail. The latter
seems to be the bird described by Aelian: "Magnificent cocks which have
the crest variegated and ornate like a crown of flowers, and the tail
feathers not curved like a cock's, but broad and carried in a train like a
peacock's; the feathers are partly golden, and partly azure or
emerald-coloured." (Wood's Birds, 610, from which I have copied the
illustration; Williams, M. K. I. 261; Ael. De Nat. An. XVI. 2.) A
species of Crossoptilon has recently been found by Captain Prjevalsky in
Alashan, the Egrigaia (as I believe) of next chapter, and one also by Abbe
Armand David at the Koko Nor.
[See on the Phasianidae family in Central and Western Asia, David et
Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine, 401-421; the Phasianus Reevesii or
veneratus is called by the Chinese of Tung-lin, near Peking, Djeu-ky
(hen-arrow); the Crossoptilon auritum is named Ma-ky.
