164 A Sportswoman in India 



The yak is an extraordinarily sure-footed beast, and 

 can be ridden, or will carry transport, over ground 

 which even a mule could not cross. He is about four- 

 teen hands, or rather less as a rule, has black, shaggy 

 hair, which hangs in heavy masses nearly to the ground, 

 so that one can hardly see daylight under an old bull 

 in his winter coat. His bushy tail is much prized in 

 India for switching away flies. He has a thick, 

 muscular neck, high withers like a hump, a broad, 

 massive forehead, and finely curved horns, short, 

 thick legs, and large hoofs. He has been immortalised 

 thus : 



As a playmate for children remember the yak ; 



You will find him exactly the thing. 

 He can carry and fetch ; you can ride on his back, 



Or lead him about by a string. 



The Tartar who lives on the plains of Thibet, 



A desolate region of snow, 

 Has for centuries made him his nursery-pet 



And surely the Tartar should know. 



So ask your papa where a yak may be got, 



And if he be awfully rich 

 He will buy you the creature or else he will not, 



I cannot be positive which ! 



It grew distinctly colder as S. and I steadily struggled 

 upwards, and when at last we were well in the funnel 

 of the pass the wind whistled. The barren region 

 beyond the Zoji La is fascinating to an extraordinary 

 degree. Central Asia, with its desert wastes, its 

 freezing blasts and burning sun, has indeed a fitting 

 entrance in that sunburnt and sorrowful pass. The 



