THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
589 
The African Sauga (Bibos africamts) wears a hump on its shoulders, and 
the natives from time to time subject it to vivisection that they may enjoy 
fresh steaks. This treatment may give the animal transient pain, but it seems 
to cause it no permanent inconvenience. 
The Yak, or Grunting Ox (Posphagus grunniens ), is a native of Thibet,, 
where it is a creature of importance whether for domestic service or industrial 
uses. We hear less of Thibet because by conquest it has become a part of the 
Chinese Empire, but it is a land full of strangeness and full of nature’s wonders. 
Its Mongolian inhabitants are 
nomadic in the northern steppes, 
but agricultural, or engaged in 
commerce and the industries 
as they live toward the south 
or in the cities. To offset the 
boiling geysers of other coun¬ 
tries, Thibet has freezing gey¬ 
sers, although not destitute of 
the other kind. One might 
think that the Titans had 
opened great ice-houses, as 
solid and massive columns of 
ice fall in quick succession 
from the height of the geyser; 
or he might think as the sun¬ 
light is separated into the 
prismatic colors that he had stumbled upon the abode of the ice-king. The 
arable land is confined to the warm valleys, but there abound everywhere rich 
mines of the precious and 
useful metals, and of gems 
so rich and rare as to render 
possible the experience of 
Sinbad the sailor. Animal 
life abounds and may be 
represented by the yak. 
This animal, which can be 
seen in many a zoological 
garden, would be called a 
buffalo by those unfamiliar 
with it. It is very gre¬ 
garious, so that the im¬ 
mense size of its herds 
again suggests the Ameri¬ 
can buffalo, before that ani¬ 
mal was by ruthless 
slaughter rendered as scarce as the descendants of the Indians, who lent ani¬ 
mation to the life of the early colonists. The hair of the head upon the yak 
is curly or frizzly; its mane is long and thick; its body is covered by short 
hair, but the legs and flanks have the greatest abundance of soft long hair; 
its long flowing tail is white. It looks as if some great hairy creature had 
THE INDIAN YAK. 
