SUPERSTITIONS REGARDIXG THEM. 207 



quietly away, frequently stopping to look at the 

 hunter. Like other antelope it is extremely tena- 

 cious of life and will run a long way although 

 Avounded.^ 



They are not difficult to shoot, for besides show- 

 ing no fear they haunt rocky defiles in the mountains, 

 where they may be easily stalked. I have fired as 

 many as one to two hundred shots at them in the 

 course of the day, my bag of course varying a good 

 deal with my luck in the long shots. 



The orongo is held sacred by Mongols and Tan- 

 gutans, and lamas will not touch the meat, which by 

 the way is excellent, particularly in autumn when the 

 animal is fat. The blood is said to possess medicinal 

 virtues, and the horns are used in charlatanism : 

 Mongols tell fortunes and predict future events by 

 the rings on these, and they also serve to mark out 

 the burial places, or more commonly the circles 

 within w^hich the bodies of deceased lamas are ex- 

 posed : these horns are carried away in large numbers 

 by pilgrims returning from Tibet, and are sold at 

 high prices. Mongols tell you that a whip-handle 

 made from one will in the hands of the rider prevent 

 his steed from tiring. 



Another prevalent superstition is, that the orongo 

 has only one horn growing vertically from the centre 

 of the head. In Kan-su and Koko-nor \ve were told 

 that unicorns were rare, one or two in a thousand ; 



^ In all the orongo killed by us, we found under the skin of the 

 posterior a number of the larvae of the gadfly, which we found on no 

 other animal of Northern Tibet. 



