ous
patter of tiny hoofs, and the animal sneezed from the bushes at my
right. I kept as motionless as a statue, and the sneezes followed
each other in rapid succession, accompanied by impatient stampings
and gentle rustlings in the brush. Then I saw a tiny head emerge
from behind a leafy screen and a pair of brilliant eyes gazing at me
steadily.

Very, very slowly I raised the rifle until the stock nestled against
my cheek; then I fired quickly.

Running to the spot where the head had been I found a beautiful
brown-gray animal lying behind a bush. It was no larger than a
half-grown fawn, but on either side of its mouth two daggerlike tusks
projected, slender, sharp and ivory white. It was a musk deer--the
first living, wild one I had ever seen. Even before I touched the
body I inhaled a heavy, not unpleasant, odor of musk and discovered
the gland upon the abdomen. It was three inches long and two inches
wide, but all the hair on the rump and belly was strongly
impregnated with the odor.

These little deer are eagerly sought by the natives throughout the
Orient, as musk is valuable for perfume. In Urga the Mongols could
sell a "pod" for five dollars (silver) and in other parts of China
it is worth considerably more. When we were in Yuen-nan we frequently
heard of a musk buyer whom the Paris perfumer, Pinaud, maintained in
the remote mountain village of Atunzi, on the Tibetan frontier.

Because of their commercial value the little animals are
relentlessly persecuted in every country which they inhabit and in
some places they have been completely exterminated. Those in
Mongolia are particularly difficult to kill, since they live only on
the mountain summits in the thickest forests. Indeed, were it not
for their insatiable curiosity it would be almost impossible ever to
shoot them.

They might be snared, of course, but I never saw any traps or
devices for catching animals which the Mongols used; they seem to
depend entirely upon their guns. This is quite unlike the Chinese,
Koreans, Manchus, Malays, and other Orientals with whom I have
hunted, for they all have developed ingenious snares, pitfalls and
traps.

The musk sac is present only in the male deer and is, of course, for
the purpose of attracting the does. Unfortunately, it is not
possible to distinguish the sexes except upon close examination, for
both are hornless, and as a result the natives sometimes kill
females which they would prefer to leave unmolest