docile than ours; many of them, when they carry burthens, bend their knees to take them up, or set them down: they are treated, therefore, by the natives of those countries, with a degree of tenderness and care equal to their utility; and the respect for them in India has degenerated even into blind adoration. But it is among the Hottentots where these animals are chiefly esteemed, as being more than commonly serviceable. They are their fellow-domestics, the companions of their pleasures and fatigues; the cow is at once the Hottentot's protector and servant, assists him in attending his flocks, and guarding them against every invader; while the sheep are grazing, the faithful bakely, as this kind of cow is called, stands or grazes beside them; still, however, attentive to the looks of its master, the bakely flies round the field, herds in the sheep at their straying, obliges them to keep within proper limits, and shows no mercy to robbers, or even strangers, who attempt to plunder. But it is not the plun derers of the flock alone, but even the enemies of the nation, that these bakelys are taught to combat. Every army of Hottentots is furnished with a proper herd of these, which are let loose against the enemy, when the occasion is most convenient. Being thus sent forward, they overturn all before them; they strike every opposer down with their horns, and trample upon them with their feet; and thus often procure their masters an easy victory, even before they have attempted to strike a blow. An animal so serviceable, it may be supposed, is not without its reward. The bakely lives in the same cottage with its master, and, by long habit, gains an affection for him; and in proportion as the man approaches to the brute, so the brute seems to attain even to some share of human sagacity. The Hottentot and his bakely thus mutually assist each other; and when the latter happens to die, a new one is chosen to succeed him, by a council of the old men of the village. The new bakely is then joined with one of the veterans of his own kind, from whom he learns his art, becomes social and diligent, and is taken for life into human friendship and protection.

The bisons, or cows

with a hump, are found to differ very much from each other in the several parts of the world where they are found. The wild ones of this kind, as with us, are much larger than the tame. Some have horns, and some are without any; some have them depressed, and some raised in such a manner that they are used as weapons of annoyance or defence; some are extremely large; and others among them, such as the zebu, or Barbary cow, are

very small. They are all, however, equally docile and gentle when tamed; and in general, furnished with a fine, lustrous, soft hair, more beautiful than that of our own breed; their hump is also of different sizes, in some weighing from forty to fifty pounds, in others less; it is not, however, to be considered as a part necessarily belonging to the animal; and probably it might be cut away without much injury: it resembles a gristly fat; and, as I am assured, cuts and tastes somewhat like a dressed udder.

Of all animals, except man alone, the cow seems most extensively propagated. Its nature seems equally capable of the rigours of heat and cold. It is an inhabitant as well of the frozen fields of Iceland, as the burning deserts of Lybia. It seems an ancient inmate in every climate, domestic and tame in those countries which have been civilized, savage and wild in the countries which are less peopled, but capable of being made useful in all; able to defend itself in a state

of nature against the most powerful enemy of the forest; and only subordinate to man whose force it has experienced, and whose aid it at last seems to require. However wild the calves are which are taken from the dam in a savage state either in Africa or Asia, they soon become humble, patient, and familiar; and man may be considered, in those countries, as almost helpless without their assistance. Other animals preserve their nature or their form with inflexible perseverance; but these, in every respect, suit themselves to the appetites and conveniences of mankind; and as their shapes are found to alter, so also does their nature; in no animal is there seen a greater variety of kinds, and in none a more humble and pliant disposition.

THE BUFFALO.-If we should compare the shape of our common cow with that of the bison, the difference will appear very great. The shaggy mane of the latter, the beard, the curled forehead, the inverted horns, the broad breast, and the narrow hinder parts, give it the appearance rather of a lion than a cow; and fit it more for a state of war with mankind, than a state of servitude. Yet notwithstanding these appearances, both animals are found to be the same; or at least, so nearly allied, that they breed among each other, and propagate a race that continues the kind.*

The buffalo is, upon the whole, by no means so beautiful a creature as the cow; his figure is more clumsy and awkward; his air is wilder; and he carries his head lower, and nearer the ground; his limbs are less fleshy, and his tail more naked of hair: his body is shorter and thicker than that of the cow kind; his legs are higher; his head smaller; his horns not so round, black, and compressed, with a bunch of curled hair hanging down between them; his skin is also harder and thicker, more black, and less furnished with hair; his flesh, which is hard and blackish, is not only disagreeable to the taste, but likewise to the smell. The milk of the female is by no means so good as that of the cow; it is, however, produced in great abundance. In the warm countries, almost all their cheese is made of the milk of the buffalo; and they supply butter also in large quantities. The veal of the young buffalo is not better eating than the beef of the old. The hide of this animal seems to be the most valuable thing he furnishes. The leather made of it is well known for its thickness, softness, and impenetrability. As these animals are, in general, larger and stronger than the

eastward, and destroyed in that time fortytwo tigers, but only one arnee, though numerous wild buffaloes became their quarry. When the head of this specimen rested perpendicular on the ground, it required the outstretched arms of a man to hold the points of the horns. Captain Williamson, in his Oriental Field Sports evidently speaks of the true arnee in the anecdote where one of these animals pursued a sportsman to his elephant, and ran its horns under his belly to lift him up. The common arnee, is also a very large animal; these live gregariously in woods and swamps, occasionally floating in whole droves down the Ganges, seemingly asleep, until the current lands them on some island, or on the bank; boats are sometimes endangered by sailing in among them un

awares.

They are said to plunge under water, and raise acquatic plants with their horns to the surface, and feed on them while driving down the stream.

A herd of these animals was observed by a column of troops, some years ago, on the march to Patna, by the inland road. On discovering the red dresses of the soldiers they threw out their usual signals of hostility, and galloped off; then suddenly wheeling round, came in a body, as if they intended to charge, and their horns overtopping their heads, rendered it doubtful whether they were not mounted by some hostile force; part of the column, therefore, halted and formed, and the animals suddenly struck by the glittering of the arms, stopped, turned tumultuously round, and dashed into cover.

THE CAPE BUFFALO.-This species is designated by the Hottentots by the name of Qu'araho. It is distinguished by dark and rugous horns spreading horizontally over the summit of the head in the shape of a scalp.

There is some doubt whether Pliny alludes to this species in his description of the fierce African wild oxen, which were caught in pitfalls: the Araho is a truly terrible and fero

cious beast, possessing a tremendous voice, and moving with considerable swiftness, but so ponderous as to be disinclined to ascend; its scent is keen, but the breadth of its horns impede its sight. This species live in small herds in brushwood and open forests of Caffraria, occasionally uniting in droves upon the plain. Professor Thunberg gives an appalling account of the destruction of two horses by one of these animals, the riders providentially escaping by climing trees. Their hide is made into shields, cut into whips and traces, and is so hard that a musket ball will scarcely penetrate into it, unless the lead be mixed with tin. Since the increase of the settlements about the Cape of Good Hope, the buffalo is become more scarce in the colony, but they spread along the eastern side of Africa to an unknown distance in the interior.

THE DOMESTIC BUFFALO.-The domestic buffalo is no doubt descended from the arnee. It is an animal at all times of very doubtful docility, with a sombre, malignant eye, active, daring, swift, and persevering when excited; possessed of great strength for burden and for the plough, two being equal in power to four horses; but furnishing little and indifferent milk, and worse flesh: the hide and horns are alone valuable. The domestic breed in Bengal is not more than four feet and a half high, and used to labour; but for burden, care is required to be taken that the goods they carry do not suffer from wet, their propensity to lie down in water being invincible; wood and bricks are, therefore, their most common load. The largest of the wild breed are used by the native princes, to supply the place of arnees, and fight with tigers in public shows. With the natives, they are docile; they ride on their favourite without fear. When driven along, the herds keep close together, so that the driver, if necessary, walks from the back of the one to the other, perfectly at his convenience. In Italy it is MAJOR SMITH. asserted that buffaloes have again become wild.