368 A SURGICAL OPERATION. 



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 appropri- 

 ate 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, speci- 

 mens 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 30 

 inches, or even more, and are about a foot in girth. The 

 beautiful skin, with its thick elastic pile, is of a bluish-grey, 

 bordered with distinct jet-black and pure- white markings. 

 In winter it is handsomest, when the colour becomes more 

 decidedly slate-blue. The ewes are rather smaller than the 

 rams, and their horns are much thinner and shorter, their 

 colour paler, and the black and white bordering less distinctly 

 defined. They usually produce two lambs in spring. To- 



