NOMADS OF THE FOREST 169 



Very, very slowly I raised the rifle until the stock 

 nestled against my cheek; then I fired quickly. 



Running to the spot where the head had been I found 

 a beautiful brown-gray animal lying behind a bush. It 

 was no larger than a half-grown fawn, but on either side 

 of its mouth two daggerlike tusks projected, slender, 

 sharp and ivory white. It was a musk deer— the first 

 living, wild one I had ever seen. Even before I touched 

 the body I inhaled a heavy, not unpleasant, odor of 

 musk and discovered the gland upon the abdomen. It 

 was three inches long and two inches wide, but all the 

 hair on the rump and belly was strongly impregnated 

 with the odor. 



These little deer are eagerly sought by the natives 

 throughout the Orient, as musk is valuable for perfume. 

 In Urga the Mongols could sell a "pod" for five dollars 

 (silver) and in other parts of China it is worth con- 

 siderably more. When we were in Yiin-nan we fre- 

 quently heard of a musk buyer whom the Paris 

 perfumer, Pinaud, maintained in the remote mountain 

 village of Atunzi, on the Tibetan frontier. 



Because of their commercial value the little animals 

 are relentlessly persecuted in every country which they 

 inhabit and in some places they have been completely 

 exterminated. Those in Mongolia are particularly dif- 

 ficult to kill, since they live only on the mountain svun- 

 mits in the thickest forests. Indeed, were it not for their 

 insatiable curiosity it would be almost impossible ever 

 to shoot them. 



They might be snared, of course, but I never saw any 



