The cracked wheat (mei-tzue fan) is eaten prepared
in the same way, and is a very good dish." - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - The Dong, or Wild Yak, has till late years only been known by
vague rumour. It has always been famed in native reports for its great
fierceness. The Haft Iklim says that "it kills with its horns, by its
kicks, by treading under foot, and by tearing with its teeth," whilst the
Emperor Humayun himself told Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish admiral, that when it
had knocked a man down it skinned him from head to heels by licking him
with its tongue! Dr. Campbell states, in the Journal of the As. Soc. of
Bengal, that it was said to be four times the size of the domestic Yak.
The horns are alleged to be sometimes three feet long, and of immense
girth; they are handed round full of strong drink at the festivals of
Tibetan grandees, as the Urus horns were in Germany, according to Caesar.
A note, with which I have been favoured by Dr. Campbell (long the
respected Superintendent of British Sikkim) says: "Captain Smith, of the
Bengal Army, who had travelled in Western Tibet, told me that he had shot
many wild Yaks in the neighbourhood of the Mansarawar Lake, and that he
measured a bull which was 18 hands high, i.e. 6 feet.
