438 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 



the Tartar hordes (of the eighteenth century) resembled 

 one another" were similar to those of the fat-rumped 

 sheep of to-day, though varied locally then as now, by 

 the influences of soil and climate. These were: "long- 

 hanging ears "; " tolerably fine wool, mixed with hair," 

 the colour of the most typical usually fawn tinged with 

 red or, when more alien blood is present, grey of the 

 blue-grey type, darker towards the extremities ; the horns 

 of the ram " large, spiral, wrinkled, angular, and bent in 

 lunar form "; "a. solid mass of fat on the rump, falling- 

 over the anus in place of a tail, and dividing into two 

 hemispheres, which take the form of the hips with a little 

 button of a tail in the middle; the atrophied tail consist- 

 ing of three or four vertebrae, not more than 2 to 3 in. 

 long, no thicker than a man's middle finger, straight, 

 standing out or turning up, and covered with stiff hair 

 like a pig's bristles." 



The largest and most typical of a number of varieties 

 is the red Kalmic fat-rump, said to be "the heaviest of 

 all domestic sheep," with a very large head and promi- 

 nent Roman nose, the posterior fat extending below the 

 hocks and weighing from 20 to 40 Ib. They are strongly 

 built, and the soles of the hoofs are hollowed for the 

 purpose of removing snow to get at food in winter, but 

 probably also to give a surer footing on bare rocks, like 

 the hoofs of the yak. Among the prominent fat-rumps 

 which per se are not fur-producers may be mentioned the 

 Kalmic, Kirghiz, Mongol, Burat, Achuri and Chulmi, 

 besides Caucasus and Bokhara " Kurdiuks." What is 

 known as Kirghiz and Kalmic butter is the soft fat 

 obtained from the rumps of the sheep under discussion 

 and from the tails of fat-tail breeds, and which differs 

 fundamentally from the hard stearine fat or suet of 

 European sheep. 



Although Karakuls are regarded as the best and most 

 typical of the broad-tail class, other varieties are worthy 

 of mention, viz., Malitches, Piranyas, Valoshskaya, Kara- 



6 C. C. Young insists " that the original O. steato-pyga had 

 no fine wool, those having it now are mixed with Afghan fine- 

 wools." If the description in the text is correct, mixing must 

 have begun at an early date. 



