NOTE 3. - The cinnamon must have been the coarser cassia produced in the
lower parts of this region (See note to next chapter.) We have already
(Book I. ch. xxxi.) quoted Tavernier's testimony to the rage for coral
among the Tibetans and kindred peoples. Mr. Cooper notices the eager
demand for coral at Bathang: (See also Desgodins, La Mission du Thibet,
310.)
NOTE 4. - See supra, Bk. I. ch. lxi. note 11.
NOTE 5. - The big Tibetan mastiffs are now well known. Mr. Cooper, at
Ta-t'sien lu, notes that the people of Tibetan race "keep very large dogs,
as large as Newfoundlands." And he mentions a pack of dogs of another
breed, tan and black, "fine animals of the size of setters." The missionary
M. Durand also, in a letter from the region in question, says, speaking of
a large leopard: "Our brave watch-dogs had several times beaten him off
gallantly, and one of them had even in single combat with him received a
blow of the paw which had laid his skull open." (Ann. de la Prop de la
Foi, XXXVII. 314.) On the title-page of vol. i. we have introduced one of
these big Tibetan dogs as brought home by the Polos to Venice.
The "wild oxen called Beyamini" are probably some such species as the
Gaur. Beyamini I suspect to be no Oriental word, but to stand for
Buemini, i.e. Bohemian, a name which may have been given by the
Venetians to either the bison or urus.
