YAJUR. SANSK. The name of one of the Vedas, religious books of the Hindus. It is the second of the four scriptural authorities of the Hindus, and is the sacrificial Veda. The Taittiriya, or the Black Yajur Veda, contains more of prayers to serpents and serpent-worship than the Rig Veda. In the Sanhita of this Veda are prayers to the Sarpa, who are addressed as inhabiting the heavens, the skies, the rays of the sun, the waters, the vegetables, etc. See Veda.
YAK, Bos poephagus, or B. grunniens, or Peophagus grunniens, is still in a wild state, but has been largely domesticated. 'The general aspect of the yak is distinctly bisontine, and it carries its head low, like the rest of the sub group. The yak is indigenous to High Tibet, and especially to Eastern Tibet, where they are still tolerably numerous in the wild state. It is extensively domesticated, and is the ordinary tame cattle of that elevated portion of the globe. The wild animal is known as the Dong or Ban chour. In the Western Himalayas, the wild yak is called Brong or Dong, and the female hBrong hBri, which is commonly ronounced Dond-di.
Vigne was informed that the yak is found wild \ on the northern slopes of e Himalaya, where they descend on Yarkand. 'The Messrs. Schla geutweit state that in 1Vestern Tibet, particularly in. Ladakh, there are no inore Of the yak in a wild state at present.
Amongst all quadruped animals the yak is found at the greatest height ; it stands best the cold of the Snowy Mountains, and is least affected by the rarefied air. But at the same time the range of temperature in which a yak can live is very limited ; the real yak can scarcely exist in summer at heights of 8000 feet. The Schlagentweits found large herds of wild yak, from 30 to 40, on heights of 18,600 to 18,900 English feet; and on one occa sion they traced them even as high as 19,300 feet,— a remarkable elevation, as it is very considerably above the limits of vegetation, and even more than 1000 feet above the snow line. Hermann and Robert Schlagentweit frequently found wild yak on both sides of the range which separates the Indus from the Sutlej, near the origin of the Indus and near the environs of Gaarto, but the greatest number of them was at the foot of the Kara-korum range, as well as at the foot of the Konen Lun in Turkestan. It is the largest native
animal of Tibet. It is, when wild, horridly fierce, falling on the hunter with horns and chest, and if he rasp with his tongue it is so rough as to scrape the flesh from the bones. It is hunted by large dogs, and shot with a blunderbuss. The wild yak does not come so far south a,s Rupshu, but a few are met with during winter and early spring on the Nubra ranges ; they migrate, however, to the loftier slopes of the Kara-korum before the end of April. The yak wanders about singly or in small herds, preferring secluded valleys to open hillsides, passing the day among the snow, where, like deer and bears, it may often be seen at mid-day stretched out at full length asleep". The prevailing colour of the wild yak is black, with a, greyish tinge on the head. In its native state it is shy and timid, and the same to some degree when domesticated. In winter :flocks graze below 8000 . feet, on ac count of the great quantity of snow above that height ; in summer they find pasturage as high as 17,000 feet, consisting of grass and small tufted carices, on which they browse with avidity.
Its favourite pasturages are ascertained, and in the midst of these the hunters throw up circular stone enclosures a few yards apart, the hunter taking up his position in one of them. . 1Vhen a yak is within shot, the hunter fires, and in stantly quits his enclosure for another ; for so soon as the animal hears the shot, he, whether he has been hit or not, guided by the smoke of the discharge, rushes furiously on the en closure, and commences knocking it to pieces. When the hunter gets another shot at him he retires again from his shelter two. fresh enclosure, and so on till he has killed his game. The ordinary size of the dong is four times that of the domestic yak ; it is black all over, having occa sionally a white streak in the forehead. The horns of a full-grown bull are said to be three feet long. It is used by grandees of Tibet at marriages and other feasts, when it is filled with strong drink, and handed round to the company. Nothing more commendatory pf the host's joviality can be said, than that be regaled his guest out of the dong's horn.' The horns so used are finely polished, and mounted with silver or gold and precious stones.