56 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In Asia the Tartar-Mongols of Siberia, it is recorded in 1253, used 

 ox or horse dung to roast sheep.^* 



Lansdell, decribing the life of the Buriats, gives an excellent sum- 

 mary of the kinds and economic value of animal fuel: 



"The collecting, pounding, molding, and drying of dung is, 

 further south, an important branch of commerce. Argols are of 

 four classes. In the first rank are the argols of goats and sheep, 

 which make so fierce a fire that a bar of iron placed therein is soon 

 brought to a white heat. The argols of camels constitute the sec- 

 ond class; they burn less easily, and throw out a fine flame, but the 

 heat they give is less intense than that given by the preceding. The 

 third class comprises the argols of the bovine species; these when 

 thoroughly dry burn readily and produce no smoke. Lastly come 

 the argols of horses and other animals, which, not having undergone 

 the process of rumination, present nothing but a mass of straw, 

 more or less triturated. They are soon consumed, but are useful 

 for lighting a fire. This fuel is called 'kiscek' in Russia. * * * 

 It was made from the dung of cattle and sheep laboriously trodden 

 under foot by women, and then sun dried." ^^ 



George Bogle, speaking of the fuel of western Tibet, writes: 



"Here we bathed, and the servants gathering together a parcel of 

 dried cow dung, one of them struck a fire with his tinder box and 

 hghted it. 



"The coldness of the climate renders fuel a very essential article, 

 and as no wood is to be had the Tibetans are obliged to use cow dung, 

 which is carefully gathered from the fields. This is built up in a 

 circular form or put into a pot with a hole in the bottom. It makes 

 a cheerful and ardent fire when well kindled, and the people are 

 abundantly skillful in the art of managing it, which my own ill success 

 has often shown me to be a very difiicult process." ^^ 



W. W. Rockhill says: "Yak dung is the principal substance used 

 in domestic architecture among the Drupa Tibetans."" 



In Persia " the next is the most filthy and degrading work the 

 women have to do; making round cakes of manure, which they slap 

 on every wall for fuel." ^^ 



Layard speaks of the fire of camel's dung used by the Abou-Salraan 

 Arabs at Niinroud.^^ _ 



In Arabia in 1719: "When the caravan halted for the purpose of 

 cooking their breakfast or dinner the dung left by camels of pre- 

 ceding traveling was carefully gathered up, there being no wood; 



'« August St. John. Lives of Celebrated Travellers, New York, 1835, vol. 1, p. 23. 

 » Henry Lansdell. Through Siberia, Boston, 1882, p. 368. 

 M Narrative of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, 1876, pp. 70, 71. 



3'W. W. Rockhill. Journey Through Mongolia and Tibet, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 

 1S94, p. 248. 



. '8 Woman's Work for Women, October, 1888, p. 260. 

 •Austin H. Layard. Popular Account of the Discoveries at Ninevah, New York, 1853, p. 39. 



