320 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
All these statements are without foundation, for, although there 
are large breeds of goats peculiar to certain parts of India, they never 
approach the ass in size, and the sheep are particularly small. Atlian*® 
alludes to the largeness of the tails, those of the sheep reaching to their 
feet, and the tails of the goats almost touching the ground. There are 
breeds of large-tailed sheep in Western India and Afghanistan called 
Dumbas, but I am unaware of the existence of any breed of goats 
which are remarkable in this respect. However in India some 
of the sheep are very goat-like and the contrary is also true. A wild 
goat of large size, said to be equal to an ordinary donkey, occurs in 
the western ghats and the Nilgiri hills. It is the Hemitragus hylo- 
ertus of Ogilby. 
15. Tux Aeriopovus (‘Ayprofois.) 
Poephagus grunniens, Linn.—The Yak. 
The above name is that given by Kosmas Indikopleustes, a monkish 
traveller of the seventh century, to an animal which is most probably 
the same as one described by Aélian in the passage quoted below. Taking 
both of these accounts together, I do not hesitate to identify it with 
the Yak, which occurs not in India, but north of the Himalayan snow 
ranges. Yaks’ tails are even at the present time a regular trade com- 
modity, brought into India through Nepal and other frontier states, 
and they are much used by Indian potentates for various decorative 
purposes, insignia, &c., and from them are also made the more humble 
fly-whisks carried by horsemen. 
Allian says! :—‘‘ There is found in India a graminivorous animal 
(xonddywv Sdwv), which is double the size of a horse, and which hasa 
very bushy tail, very black in colour. The hair of this tail is finer 
than human hair, and its possession is a point on which Indian women 
set great store, for therewith they make a charming coiffure, by binding 
and braiding it with locks of their own natural hair. The length 
of a hair is two cubits, and from a single root there spring out in the 
form of a fringe somewhere about thirty hairs.” 
ABlian gives also a second and separate description of an animal 
shaped liked a satyr, covered all over with shaggy hair, and having a 
tail like a horse’s. It was found in the mountains skirting the inland 
frontier of India, in a district called Korinda. When pursued it fled 
up the mountain sides, rolling down stones on its assailants. This, I 
think, was probably also the Yak. Compilers like Alan have often 
mentioned the same object twice under different titles. ‘‘ The animal 
itself is the most timid that is known, for should it perceive that any- 
one is looking at it, it starts off at its utmost speed, and runs right for- 
ward; but its eagerness to escape is greater than the rapidity of its 
40 De Animal Nat., iv. 32. 41 Hist. Anim., xvi. 21. 
