MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 445 



or "Treibel," which may be glossy black, brown, white, 

 or mottled; and flat to short-furred, wavy to moire. 

 Medium haired sorts are more curly and wavy. The wide 

 variety in type of fur and colour is the result of the great 

 diversity of mixed breeding. 



The so-called " Tibet " lamb skins do not come from 

 Tibet, but are probably the product of sheep bred in North 

 China, in the Provinces of Shansi and Shensi. The mis- 

 leading name probably arose in China, where the word 

 " Dhan Pik," meaning lamb-skin, may have been con- 

 fused with " Tanpi " or Tibet. The dressing of Tibet 

 lamb skins is not carried on locally by the breeders, but 

 in large dressing establishments where hundreds of 

 workers are employed. 



The origin of the dark pigment in Karakuls and other 

 strains of Asiatic sheep is believed to have been the Black 

 Danadar, which is now practically extinct in Bokhara, 

 though a few grey Danadars still exist near Kedjumek, 

 where Dr. Young found a Black Danadar long-tail ewe, 

 due to atavism, among the greys. The Black Danadar 

 always remains black from youth to age, not becoming 

 grey, as do the Arabi and Karakul-Duzbai. Quite a 

 number of black sheep found by Young in Afghanistan, 

 called " Gadik," and others in Tibet, strongly resemble 

 the Danadar. There the skins of lambs are not used, 

 but only the skins of older sheep, the wool of which 

 remains black, lustrous and curly, although owing to the 

 admixture of fine wool it has not the tightness which 

 Europeans value so much in the lamb-skin. In a great 

 many of the so-called Arabi sheep in Khiva, also the 

 Karachaev of the Caucasus, both of which strongly re- 

 semble the Danadar, and a few of the Karakul-Duzbais, 

 the colour of their pigment does not change through 

 age. The Black Danadar, the " Look Nakbo " of Tibet, 

 according to Young, is a small sheep, with a small head, 

 small erect ears, small thin feet, and long tail reaching- 

 to below the hocks. Its wool is very lustrous, strong 

 though not coarse, and wavy in the adult, the wool being 

 shorter than that of the English long-wool. The curls 

 of the new-born lambs are very fine in texture, but are 

 not specially tight. 



