1855.] Notes on Eastern Thibet. 235 



the hunter taking up a position in one of them. "When a " Dong" 

 is within shot, the hunter having fired at him, instantly quits his 

 enclosure for another ; for as soon as the animal hears the shot whe- 

 ther he is hit or not, he, guided by the smoke of the discharge, 

 rushes furiously on the enclosure, and commences knocking it to 

 pieces. When the hunter gets another shot at him he retires again 

 from his shelter to a fresh enclosure, and so on, till he has killed his 

 beast. The ordinary size of the " Dong" is four times that of the 

 domestic yak, it is black all over, having occasionally a white 

 streak in the forehead. The horns of a full grown Bull are said to be 

 three feet long, and the circumference must be immense. The com- 

 mon mode of describing it is to throw out the elbow, bring the fingers 

 to the ribs and point to the circle thus formed as the size of the base. 

 It is used by the grandees of Thibet at marriages and other feasts, 

 when it is filled with strong drink, and handed round to the company. 

 Nothing more commendatory of the host's joviality can be said, than 

 that " he regaled his guest out of the Dong's horn." 



The horns so used are finely polished, and mounted with silver, 

 or gold, and precious stones. If I ever succeed in getting one, I 

 shall certainly present it for a "snuff mull" to the Highland 

 Society, as the days of drinking in horns are over with us now. 



It is common in Thibetan goompas — (Lamaserais,) to see a stuffed 

 " Dong" standing in front of the image of Maha Kali at whose 

 shrine the animal is thus figuratively sacrificed ; axes and other in- 

 struments of sacrifice are ranged around the image. Strange that 

 Buddhists should preserve this feature of Hinduism in their places 

 of worship, not more so however than, as Hue describes that a Lama 

 should nearly go into fits on seeing a louse from his tunic impaled 

 for the microscope, while the whole of his countrymen and co-reli- 

 gionists are among the greatest slaughterers and consumers of 

 butcher's meat in the world. 



Pegoo — the yak. 



Cow — small, like the cow of Bengal. Hair long. 



Sauh — cross between cow and yak. 



Sauh Yak — produce of cow by yak bull. 



Ba Sauh — produce of female yak by bull. These are great milk- 

 ers, better than yak or cow ; tail half-cow, half-yak. Females give 



