  The damping due to rare earth impurities in transition metals is discussed in
the low concentration limit. It is shown that the increase in damping is mainly
due to the coupling of the orbital moments of the rare earth impurities and the
conduction $p$-electrons. It is shown that an itinerant picture for the host
transition ions is needed to reproduce the observed dependence of the damping
on the total angular moment of the rare earths.
