THE YAK OF TARTARY. 
SI 
soft fur upon the hump and shoulders is manufactured 
by the natives of Tibet into a fine but strong cloth, 
and if submitted to the test of European skill, might 
no doubt be made to produce a very superior fabric. 
This animal is not generally fierce, but if intruded 
upon by strangers, it sometimes manifests very for- 
midable symptoms of impatience. It has generally 
a sullen appearance, though that, I think, is greatly 
caused by the projecting forehead, which tends to give 
a stern aspect to the countenance. It, however, 
certainly expresses no signs of gratification when ap- 
proached by those with whom it is most familiar, 
discovering none of those indications of pleasure so 
generally evinced by other animals under similar cir- 
cumstances. When excited it is not easily appeased, 
and is exceedingly tenacious of injury, always show- 
ing great fierceness whenever any one approaches who 
has chanced to provoke it. The cow is called dhe, of 
which the wandering Tartars have large numbers. 
These Tartars, like the modern Bedouins and those 
nomadic races of more primitive times which nearly 
overspread the East, dwell chiefly under tents in the 
hills or in the deserts, wander from place to place, 
and have no means of subsistence but those supplied 
by their flocks and herds. 
The yak, which they pasture upon the tops of the 
mountains and in the deep glens of Tibet, affords 
them at once warm clothing and wholesome food. 
They use it also as a beast of burden, and it answers 
the purpose of the horse in transporting them over 
those bleak and rugged mountains among which they 
