120 Chinese Clay Figures 



the famous J. D. Hooker 1 took the matter in hand, and published a 

 sketch of the Chiru Antelope with the addition "unicorn of Tibet," a 

 name which he thought was suggested by the animal when viewed in 

 profile. It is identified as Antilope or Paniholops Hodgsoni, having been 

 described by Hodgson. 2 It remains a mysterious creature, and little 

 is known about it. 3 P. Landon 4 denies that this antelope, as pointed 

 out by Hooker, occurs near the Cholamu Lake at the present day. 

 L. A. Waddell 5 reports under Chiru, "None were seen and the people 

 did not appear to know of any." 



In Anglo-Indian nomenclature we now find two words in use, chiru 

 and seru, the latter also Anglicized as serow, on which Yule, in his 

 " Hobson- Jobson, " unfortunately has not commented. Serow has be- 

 come a household stock-word of the Anglo-Indian sportsman to denote 

 a large variety of different Indian, Burmese, and Tibetan antelopes. 6 

 G. Sandberg 7 recognizes in it the Tibetan word bse-ru, and identifies 

 the latter with the species Nemorhaedus bubalinus. Jaschke 8 says 

 under bse or bse-ru, "Unicorn, 'tchiru,' an antelope, probably the same 

 as gtsod," with reference to Hooker. Chandra Das, 9 who has fully 



1 Himalayan Journals, 2d ed., p. 401 (London, 1893). 



2 Journal As. Soc. Bengal, 1846, p. 338. 



3 N. Kuehner, Description of Tibet, in Russian (Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 157; and notes 

 P- 77). 



4 Lhasa, Vol. I, p. 393. 



5 Lhasa and its Mysteries, p. 483. 



6 R. Lydekker, The Game Animals of India, pp. 139 et seq. M. Dauvergne 

 (Bull. Musee d'hist. nat. de Paris, Vol. IV, 1898, p. 219) describes the animal as 

 follows: "Serow; Ramu de Kashmir, ou chevre-antilope, Nemorhaedus bubalinus 

 Hodgs. Habite les rochers escarped et broussailleux des montagnes, a une hauteur 

 de 3,000 metres, dans l'Himalaya et Kashmir. Tres difficile a chasser, il tient tSte 

 aux chiens, qu'il fait rouler dans les precipices. C'est g£ne>alement l'hiver qu'on 

 le chasse, car alors il se d£tache sur la neige, grace a la teinte noire de sa robe, et 

 comme il est tres lourd, il s'effondre et se fait prendre par les chiens." 



7 Tibet and the Tibetans, p. 297. On p. 298 he points out that the word chiru 

 should be written gcig ru ( " one horn " ) . This derivation is impossible, as ' ' one horn " 

 can be in Tibetan only ru (or rva) gcig, or ru zig. The name Ekagringa is rendered in- 

 to Tibetan Rva gcig-pa. (Compare also Hor c'os byun, ed. Huth, p. 16, 1. 14.) Chiru 

 is simply a local or dialectic variation of se-ru. Strange words exert a singular fascina- 

 tion upon the human mind. The Anglo-Indian chiru has had several good fortunes. 

 Thanks to the imaginative powers of G. Schlegel (Uranographie chinoise, p. 587), 

 it has found cheerful hospitality in Chinese astronomy, the Chinese animal hiai 

 being wrongly identified with it. A few years ago the chiru was deemed worthy of 

 the honor of being admitted into the sanctum of classical philology. O. Keller 

 (Die antike Tierwelt, Vol. I, p. 293) identifies the Indian Oryx mentioned by Aelian, 

 and the Oryx on the Hydaspes mentioned by Timotheus, with the Tibetan chiru, — a 

 venture which has no foundation; in fact, the oryx of Aelian is located in India, and 

 corresponds to the Indian black-buck. 



8 Tibetan-English Dictionary, p. 593. Skr. khadga rendered by Jaschke "a cer- 

 tain animal" is the rhinoceros. 



9 Tibetan-English Dictionary, p. 1319. 



