YAK TREES 



spiring freely before the sun rose behind some 

 threatening storm clouds ; these gradually dispersed, 

 and as the light grew brighter we emerged into a 

 large level plain covered with thin scrub and a few 

 large yak trees. These trees serve an extremely 

 valuable purpose, for often in their thick, stunted stems 

 large cavities are to be found, which become full of 

 water during the rainy season. It is from the living 

 wood round these cavities that the branches spring. 

 Native hunters nearly always carry a hollow stick, 

 approximately two feet long by half an inch in 

 diameter, by means of which they can suck up the 

 water from these holes, the opening to them being 

 often too narrow to allow them to obtain the water 

 in any other way. Whenever they see a number of 

 birds collected together in the mornings or evenings 

 on one of these trees, experience tells them that water 

 will probably be found there. 



I noticed that on many of the larger trees queer 

 marks were cut, such as the following — '^ , 

 and on questioning the guide I was told that they 

 were cattle brands and indicated what sub-tribes or 

 families were grazing their stock in that locality. A 

 couple of hours later we entered another belt of thick 

 bush. There was no breath of wind, and the heat 

 was extremely oppressive, so that we were all glad 

 to emerge about an hour later into the next plain, 

 where there was a slight breeze. This district is 

 called " Dameir Baktis" (meaning "a donkey, its 

 corpse," i.e. a dead donkey), so named from the fact 

 that a long time ago a small herd of donkeys was 

 killed by lions near two very large bushes that are 

 still a distinctive feature on these plains. It struck 

 me as curious that so extensive a tract should be 



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