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.
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