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YABOO to YAM YABOO, s. Pers. yabu, which is perhaps a corruption of Ar. yabub, defined by Johnson as a swift and long horse. A nag such as we call a galloway, a large pony or small hardy horse; the term in India is generally applied to a very useful class of animals brought from Afghanistan. [c. 1590.The fifth class (yábú horses) are bred in this country, but fall short in strength and size. Their performances also are mostly bad. They are the offspring of Turki horses with an inferior breed.Ain, ed. Blochmann, i. 234.] YAK, s. The Tibetan ox (Bos grunniens, L., Poëphagus of Gray), belonging to the Bisontine group of Bovinae. It is spoken of in Bogles Journal under the odd name of the cow-tailed cow, which is a literal sort of translation of the Hind. name chaori gao, chaoris (see CHOWRY), having been usually called cow-tails in the 18th century. [The usual native name for the beast in N. India is suragao, which comes from Skt. surabhi, pleasing.] The name yak does not appear in Buffon, who calls it the Tartarian cow, nor is it found in the 3rd ed. of Pennants H. of Quadrupeds (1793), though there is a fair account of the animal as Bos grunniens of Lin., and a poor engraving. Although the word occurs in Della Pennas account of Tibet, written in 1730, as quoted below, its first appearance in print was, as far as we can ascertain, in Turners Mission to Tibet. It is the Tib. gYak, Jäsches Dict. gyag. The animal is mentioned twice, though in a confused and inaccurate manner, by Aelian; and somewhat more correctly by Cosmas. Both have got the same fable about it. It is in medieval times described by Rubruk. The domestic yak is in Tibet the ordinary beast of burden, and is much ridden. Its hair is woven into tents, and spun into ropes; its milk a staple of diet, and its dung of fuel. The wild yak is a magnificent animal, standing sometimes 18 hands high, and weighing 1600 to 1800 lbs., and multiplies to an astonishing extent on the high plateaux of Tibet. The use of the tame yak extends from the highlands of Khokand to Kuku-khotan or Kwei-hwaching, near the great northern bend of the Yellow River. c. A.D. 250.The Indians (at times) carry as presents to their King tame tigers, trained panthers, four- horned oryxes, and cattle of two different races, one kind of great swiftness, and another kind that are terribly wild, that kind of cattle from (the tails of) which they make fly-flaps. Aelian, de Animalibus, xv. cap. 14. |
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