"Finer than silk," is an
exaggeration, or say an hyberbole, as is the following expression, "As
big as elephants," even with Ramusio's apologetic quasi. Caesar says the
Hercynian Urus was magnitudine paullo infra elephantos.
The tame Yak is used across the breadth of Mongolia. Rubruquis saw them at
Karakorum, and describes them well. Mr. Ney Elias tells me he found Yaks
common everywhere along his route in Mongolia, between the Tui river
(long. circa 101 deg.) and the upper valleys of the Kobdo near the Siberian
frontier. At Uliasut'ai they were used occasionally by Chinese settlers
for drawing carts, but he never saw them used for loads or for riding, as
in Tibet. He has also seen Yaks in the neighbourhood of Kwei-hwa-ch'eng.
(Tenduc, see ch. lix. note 1.) This may be taken as the eastern limit of
the employment of the Yak; the western limit is in the highlands of
Khokand.
These animals had been noticed by Cosmas [who calls them agriobous] in
the 6th century, and by Aelian in the 3rd. The latter speaks of them as
black cattle with white tails, from which fly-flappers were made for
Indian kings. And the great Kalidasa thus sang of the Yak, according to a
learned (if somewhat rugged) version ascribed to Dr. Mill. The poet
personifies the Himalaya:
