cipal use being for "chowries," or fly-brushes, as
already observed. Among the Tartar people they are worn in the cap as
bridges of distinction, and only the chiefs and distinguished lenders
are permitted the privilege of wearing them. In China, also, they are
similarly worn by the mandarins, first having been dyed of a bright red
colour. A fine full yak's tail will fetch either in China or India
quite a handsome sum of money.

There are several varieties of the yak. First, there is the true wild
yak--the same as those encountered by our travellers. These are much
larger than the domestic breeds, and the bulls are among the most fierce
and powerful of the ox tribe. Hunting them is often accompanied by
hair-breadth escapes and perilous encounters, and large dogs and horses
are employed in the chase.

The tame yaks are divided into several classes, as the ploughing yak,
the riding yak, etcetera, and these are not all of the dark brown colour
of the original race, but are met with dun-coloured, mottled red, and
even pure white. Dark brown or black, however, with a white tail, is
the prevailing colour. The yak-calf is the finest veal in the world;
but when the calf is taken from the mother, the cow refuses to yield
milk. In such cases the foot of the calf is brought for her to lick, or
the stuffed skin to fondle, when she will give milk as before,
expressing her satisfaction by short grunts like a pig.

The yak when used as a beast of burden will travel twenty miles a day,
under a load of two bags of rice or salt, or four or six planks of
pine-wood slung in pairs along either flank. Their ears are generally
pierced by their drivers, and ornamented with tufts of scarlet worsted.
Their true home is on the cold table-lands of Thibet and Tartary, or
still higher up among the mountain valleys of the Himalayas, where they
feed on grass or the smaller species of carices. They love to browse
upon steep places, and to scramble among rocks; and their favourite
places for resting or sleeping are on the tops of isolated boulders,
where the sun has full play upon them. When taken to warm climates,
they languish, and soon die of disease of the liver. It is possible,
however, that they could be acclimated in many European countries, were
it taken in hand by those who alone have the power to make the trial in
a proper manner--I mean the governments of these countries. But such
works of utility are about the last things that