250 



TIBETIAN MUSK. 



known, and was first mentioned by the Arabians *, 

 whose physicians used the drug in their practice. 

 The animal was by some considered as a kind of 

 Goat, by others as a species of Deer, or Antelope, 

 and was, of course, supposed to be a homed ani- 

 mal ; nor was it till about the decline of the se- 

 venteenth century that a tolerably accurate de- 

 scription or figure was to be found. 



The size and general appearance of this animal 

 not ill resemble those of a small Roebuck. It 

 measures about three feet three inches in length ; 

 about two feet three inches in height from the top 

 of the shoulders to the bottom of the fore-feet, 

 and two feet nine inches from the top of the 

 haunches to the bottom of the hind-feet. The 

 vipper jaw is considerably longer than the lower, 

 and is furnished on each side with a curved tusk 

 about two inches long, and consequently exposed 

 to view when the mouth is closed. These tusks are 

 of a different form from those of any other quadru- 

 ped ; being sharp-edged on their inner or lower 

 side, so as to resemble, in some degree, a pair of 

 small crooked knives : their substance is a kind of 

 ivory, as in the tusks of the Babyrussa and some 

 other animals. The ears are long and narrow, of 

 a pale yellow on the inside, and deep brown on 

 the outside : the chin of a yellowish cast ; the ge- 

 neral colour of the whole body a kind of deep iron- 

 grey ; the tips of the hairs being of a ferruginous 

 cast, the remainder blackish, growing much paler 



* In the eighth century it wa3 described by Serapion, 



