A SURGICAL OPERATION z8o 



through another wild gorge, brought us to our next camping- 

 ground, on the heights above which was the locality for 

 napoo, recommended by the sportsman we had met at 

 Karzok. Some of our Tartars were half-blind from the 

 effects of the previous day's snow on the pass, notwithstand- 

 ing their having improvised kind of goggles of wisps of black 

 hair pulled from their yaks' tails, and tied loosely over their 

 eyes, none of them having brought the woven yak's-hair 

 spectacles they often use on such occasions with them. I 

 found one man sitting by the wayside endeavouring to 

 extract blood from his nostrils with the point of his knife, 

 at which surgical operation he implored me to assist him, at 

 the same time handing me the knife. A good punch on his 

 proboscis would, I thought, have been much less dangerous, 

 and just as effectual, as regarded relief to his eyes. Our 

 Indian servants had not suffered so much, owing to their 

 having been provided with green goggles. There was plenty 

 of grass here for the famished yaks and how they did 

 pitch into it ! Never have I seen animals making such 

 good use of their time and teeth. But, to use a much 

 hackneyed, but in this case a rather appropriate phrase, 

 revenons a nos moutons. 



Although the wild sheep here called napoo are numerous 

 in many parts of Tibet, I have hitherto made but little 

 mention of them, as I seldom hunted expressly for them, 

 owing to my time having been fully occupied in searching 

 for other game not found on the south side of the Himalayan 

 chain, specimens of which I was then more anxious to 

 secure. Stalking burrell, as these animals are called in the 

 Himalayas, is really splendid sport on ground where they 

 are fairly plentiful. 



A full-grown male napoo or burrell (Ovis nahura) stands 

 about 33 inches at the shoulder usually, but its size seems 

 to vary in different localities. The thick arching horns, 

 which spread laterally and curve downwards, and slightly 

 backwards near their points, occasionally attain a length of 



