BREEDS OF ASIATIC HIGHLANDS 163 



" There is no special breed of one-horned sheep 

 in Nepal, nor are the specimens which have been 

 brought here for sale natural freaks. By certain 

 maltreatment, which is described below, ordinary 

 two-horned sheep are converted into a one-horned 

 variety. The process adopted is branding with a 

 red-hot iron the male lambs when about two or 

 three months old on their horns when they are 

 beginning to sprout. The wounds are treated with 

 a mixture of oil and soot, and when they heal the 

 horns, instead of growing at their usual places and 

 spreading, come out as one from the middle of 

 the skull. . . . 



" The breed which appears to be used for the 

 purpose of manipulating and converting into ' uni- 

 corns ' seems to be exclusively the Barwal, a Tibetan 

 breed of heavy-horned sheep ; the horns being of the 

 same type (in miniature) as those of Ovis hodgsoni. 

 I am told that the object of producing these curio- 

 sities is to obtain fancy prices for them from wealthy 

 people in Nepal. The two-horned Barwal rams are 

 regularly used in Nepal for fighting purposes." 



It may be added that a somewhat similar 

 modification in the horns of cattle is effected by 

 the Kafirs of South Africa, who sear the budding 

 horns of calves with red-hot irons, and then band- 

 age them together.^ 



* See J. G. Wood's Natural History of Man, vol. ii. p. 67, 

 London, 1868. 



