212 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



the scenes he witnessed among them : " Just as the day dawned I 

 turned out to examine our position, when I discovered the snowy 

 peaks of the Sian-Shan. They appeared cold and ghost-like against 

 the deep-blue sky ; presently they were tipped with the sun's rays, 

 and shone forth like rubies. I sat on the ground, watching the 

 changes with much interest, till the whole landscape was lighted 

 up. Immediately near me was a busy scene ; on one side the men 

 were milking the mares, to the number of more than one hundred, 

 and carrying leathern pails of milk to the 'koumiss' bag in the 

 ' yourt,' the young foals being secured in two long lines to pegs 

 driven in the ground. In front, and on the opposite side, the 

 women were milking cows, sheep, and goats, and a little distance 

 beyond these the camels were suckling their young. Around the 

 camp the steppe was filled with animal life. The sultan told me 

 that there were more than two thousand horses, half the number 

 of cows and oxen, two hundred and eighty camels, and more than 

 six thousand sheep and goats. The screams of the camels, the bel- 

 lowing of the bulls, the neighing of the horses, and bleating of the 

 sheep and goats, formed a pastoral chorus such as I had never heard 

 in Europe." On another occasion he writes : " All were out with 

 the dawn, and then appeared a scene highly interesting to me. The 

 whole of the herds are brought to the 'aoul' at night, where they 

 are most carefully guarded by watchmen and dogs placed in every 

 direction, rendering it almost impossible to enter any ' aoul ' with- 

 out detection. The noise at first was almost intolerable ; there was 

 the sharp cry of the camels, the neighing of the horses, the bellow- 

 ing of the bulls, and the barking of the dogs, and shouting of the 

 men. I counted one hundred and six camels, including their young; 

 there were more than two thousand horses, one thousand oxen and 

 cows, and six thousand sheep and goats. Even these, large as the 

 number may appear, were far short of the total number belonging 

 to the patriarch chief. It was, indeed, a wonderful sight, when they 

 were marched off in different directions, spreading themselves out 

 in living streams as they moved slowly along the steppe." 



Disease then, as now, especially the ravaging pests, robbed these 

 early agriculturists, not only of their means of sustenance, but of 

 their wealth. As in our day, when such visitations endanger the 

 animal property of the people of a country, so in those by-gone 

 days did our Aryan fathers appeal to the gods for protection, and 

 make choice offerings from the fairest and best of their flocks for 

 their amelioration. They knew nothing of prevention, in a modern 

 sense. The gods were manifesting their anger, and wreaking their 



