r 



THE MUSK OX. 



521 



probably been occasioned by the climate in which it lives and the work to which it has been 

 put. The Noble Yak, for example, is a large, handsome animal, holding its head proudly 

 erect, having a large hump, extremely long hair, and a very bushy tail. It is a shy and withal 

 capricious animal, too much disposed to kick with the hind feet and to make threatening 

 demonstrations with the horns, as if it intended to impale the rider. The heavy fringes of 

 hair that decorate the sides of the Yak do not make their appearance until the animal has 

 attained three months of age, the calves being covered with rough curling hair, not unlike 

 that of a black Newfoundland dog. The beautiful white bushy tail of the Yak is in great 

 request for various ornamental purposes, and forms quite an important article of commerce. 



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Dyed red, it is formed into those curious tufts that decorate the caps of the Chinese, and when 

 properly mounted in a silver handle, it is used as a fly-flapper in India under the name of a 

 chowrie. These tails are carried before certain officers of state, their number indicating 

 his rank. 



The Plough Yak is altogether a more plebeian-looking animal, humble of deportment, 

 carrying its head low, and almost devoid of the magnificent tufts of long silken hairs that 

 fringe the sides of its more aristocratic relation. Their legs are very short in proportion to 

 their bodies, and they are generally tailless, that member having been cut off and sold by their 

 avaricious owner. There is also another variety which is termed the Ghainorik. The color of 

 this animal is black, the back and tail being often white. The natives of the country where 

 the Yak lives are in the habit of crossing it with the common domestic cattle and obtaining a 

 mixed breed. When overloaded, the Yak is accustomed to vent is displeasure by its loud, 

 monotonic, melancholy grunting, which has been known to affect the nerves of unpractised 

 riders to such an extent that they dismounted, after suffering half an hour's infliction of this 

 most lugubrious chant, and performed the remainder of their journey on foot. 



THE curiously shaped horns of the MUSK Ox, its long woolly hair falling nearly to the 

 ground in every direction, so as nearly to conceal its legs, together with the peculiar form of 



