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. Polo’s contemporary, Brunetto Latini, seems to speak of one of these as still existing in his day in Germany: “Autre buef naissent en Alemaigne qui ont grans cors, et sont bons por sommier et por vin porter.” (Paris ed., p. 228; see also _Lubbock, Pre-historic Times_, 296–7.) [Mr. Baber (_Travels_, pp. 39, 40) writes: “A special interest attaches to the wild oxen, since they are unknown in any other part of China Proper. From a Lolo chief and his followers, most enthusiastic hunters, I afterwards learnt that the cattle are met with in herds of from seven to twenty head in the recesses of the Wilderness, which may be defined as the region between the T’ung River and Yachou, but that in general they are rarely seen.... I was lucky enough to obtain a pair of horns and part of the hide of one of these redoubtable animals, which seem to show that they are a kind of bison.” Sir H. Yule remarks in a footnote (_Ibid._ p. 40): “It is not possible to say from what is stated here what the species is, but probably it is a _gavœus_, of which Jerdan describes three species. (See _Mammals of India_, pp. 301–307.) Mr. Hodgson describes the Gaur (_Gavœus gaurus_ of Jerdan) of the forests below Nepaul as fierce and revengeful.”—H. C.] CHAPTER XLVII. CONCERNING THE PROVINCE OF CAINDU.