CHAPTER IX 



FAT-TAILED AND LONG-TAILED SHEEP 



At the conclusion of his account of the domesticated 

 sheep of Tibet and the eastern sub-Himalaya, 

 referred to in the preceding chapter, Mr. Brian 

 Hodgson wrote as follows : — 



" I might next describe the Terai ^ sheep, which 

 seems to be identical with that found all over the 

 Gangetic provinces, and is characterised by medium 

 size, black colour, and very coarse but true fleece, 

 frequent absence of horns in one or both sexes, a 

 nose Romanised amply, very largely drooping ears, 

 and a long thick tail, frequently passing into the 

 monstrous dumba ' bussel ' . . . but I shall merely 

 observe of the long-tailed sheep of the Gangetic 

 provinces, the puchia " of the natives, that ... its 

 deviations . . . from the wild and tame sheep of 

 the mountains distinctly prove the ultimate effects 

 of domestication upon these animals to be (i) to 

 augment exceedingly the size of the tail, in length 

 and thickness, one or both, (2) to increase the size 

 and destroy the mobility of the ear, and (3) to 



' The low forest-country of Nepal. 



' Yrorapuech, a tail, the equivalent of the Hindustani dumba. 



