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.'"
Who can forget Pere Huc's inimitable picture of the hairy Yaks of their
caravan, after passing a river in the depth of winter, "walking with their
legs wide apart, and bearing an enormous load of stalactites, which hung
beneath their bellies quite to the ground. The monstrous beasts looked
exactly as if they were preserved in sugar-candy." Or that other, even
more striking, 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.
