522 DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIES 



* With •regard to the Hindus scrupHng to kill a 

 Gay at, I could not obtain a direct answer : as the 

 word " Go' is affixed to one of the names, from 

 which they infer that it partakes of the cow, and 

 are afraid positively to declare, that it is not im- 

 proper to kill the animal ; quoting a passage from 

 the Sastra, " Gosadfisah Gavayah,'' * a Gavaya is 

 hke an ox.' However, the Raja of Cuclihdi% who 

 is a Cshatriya of the Suryabansi race, occasionally 

 sends several Gaydls to be sacrificed on certain hills 

 in his country, in order to conciliate the Devoid 

 of the place ; as his Vaktl informs me.' 



The answers received from the Vakil at Cdchhdr, 

 to the questions forwarded by Mr. Dick, con- 

 tain the following information. . 



* The Gaydl is called Gaitjarigali in the Persian 

 language, Gavaya in Sanscrit, and Met hand h^ 

 the mountaineers : but others name the animal 

 Gobay-goru. 



* Gaydls are not confined to the woods : they 

 are domesticated. But wild Gaydls are found in 

 the mountains of Bhotant, Sec. They are kept, in 

 a tame state, by the people who inhabit the Cdld- 

 ndgd hills, near the district of CJihilhet (Silhet), 

 on the eastern border of the province of Cddikar, 

 west of Maiiipur, and north of a tract dependant 

 on Tripura, C a land gas, Cucis, and K/ids is (tv'ihts of 

 mountaineers), keep Gaydls for the sake of the flesh, 

 not for the milk, which they do not use ; nor for 

 burden, since they have no such employment for 

 their cattle. 



* The Gaydl lives to the age of twenty, or twen- 

 ty-five, years : it has reached its full growth at 



