The Tibetans adulterate it by
mixing tsamba and blood with it. The best time to buy it is from the
seventh to the ninth moon (latter part of August to middle of November)."
Mr. Rockhill adds in a note: "Mongols call musk owo; Tibetans call it
latse. The best musk they say is 'white musk,' tsahan owo in Mongol,
in Tibetan latse karpo. I do not know whether white refers to the colour
of the musk itself or to that of the hair on the skin covering the musk
pouch." (Diary of a Journey, p. 71.) - H. C.]
Three species of the Moschus are found in the Mountains of Tibet, and
M. Chrysogaster which Mr. Hodgson calls "the loveliest," and which
chiefly supplies the highly-prized pod called Kaghazi, or
"Thin-as-paper," is almost exclusively confined to the Chinese frontier.
Like the Yak, the Moschus is mentioned by Cosmas (circa A.D. 545), and
musk appears in a Greek prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician
practising at Constantinople about the same date.
(Martini, p. 39; Tav., Des Indes, Bk. II. ch. xxiv.; J. A. S. B. XI.
285; Davies's Rep. App. p. ccxxxvii.; Dr. Flueckiger in Schweiz.
Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie, 1867; Heyd, Commerce du Levant, II.
636-640.)
NOTE 5.
