406 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



Braminical cast, to give liberty to certain cattle at their 

 deaths, may produce great differences upon animals, -who 

 are thus restored to a state of nature. The Yak inhabits 

 also the Altaic Mountains, and supplies milk to the Cal- 

 muks, the Mongolian and Doukta Tartars, and affords 

 materials of trade in the sale of their white tails, of which 

 the Turks and Persians make standards, commonly named 

 horse tails, dyed of various colours, but principally crimson. 

 In India and Persia, chowries or fly-drivers are made of 

 them, and they adorn the ears of elephants, the throat, 

 band, and croups of horses, as may be seen to have consti- 

 tuted a practice of antiquity in the bas reliefs of Chelmi- 

 nar (Persepolis) and Naktchi Roustam, the temple of Sal- 

 sette, and is still in vogue at this day. The Tartars lead 

 a wandering life with these cattle, preserving the milk, 

 which is very good and abundant, in bladders, till they load 

 the animals with their own produce, and carry it to mar- 

 ket : they make tents and ropes of the hair ; caps and 

 and clothes of the skin. The Chinese name them Si-nyn 

 or Water Ox, and adorn their caps with the fringes of the 

 hair. The Tartar name is Sarlyk Ukur; the Mahomedan, 

 Ghau-n'ouk. In India the Yak is called Soorgoy ; and 

 the Persians seem to indicate it by ^jJLAfi Gaw-dashti. 



The Gayal. (B. Gav&us.) If the Gruavera of Ceylon be 

 the same animal as the Gayal of India, the species was 

 known from the time Knox wrote his history, but was 

 little noticed by naturalists, until Mr. Pennant extracted 

 from this work his account of it, and Mr. Brooke Lambert 

 subsequently described a specimen, which lived a short time 

 in England. Captain Turner also had noticed it, and lately 

 Mr. F. Cuvier figured the Jungli Ghau. There existed a 

 paper on the Gayal in the second volume of the Asiatic 

 Researches ; but in the Eighth, 1808, a more complete 

 description is produced through the communications of Drs. 

 Roxburgh, Buchannan, Messrs. Colebrook, Macray, Bird 



