WUITE CATTLE : AX INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 



239 



Specimens of the Urus were still found in the middle ages in 



Central Europe, the last known example of it having been killed 



in 1627 in the Zoolosrical Garden of Count Samoiskv, at Saklorowa 



in Poland. The slaughter of four Urus is mentioned in the 



Nihelungen Lied of the 1 2 th 



centurv as havinir taken 



place in the neighbourhood 



of Worms. In the 11th 



century, the Elk and Urus 



were met with in Germany 



bj crusaders en route. In 



the 10th century we find 



that the monks of St. Galle, '^ ''"^ Sic inUtfciuntur yH 



in Switzerland, returned 



thanks to God for its flesh. Fig. 9. — Hunting the Urus. Yrom. Globus. 



while in the 9th centurv 



it was hunted (Fig. 9) by Charlemagne in the forest lands 



^ysrv> 



Fig. 10.— Supposed Urus, from au olil Augsburg painting. 



near Aixda-Chapelle. The writer of the section on ••'Oxen," 

 in '-The Royal Natural History,'"' states that "old chronicles 



