248 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



than this, except that their hide is thicker and harder." Plinv 

 has a somewhat similar description of a race of cattle. He writes, 

 "the cattle of the Troglodytse were not like other oxen, for their 

 horns pointed downwards to the ground, so that they were obliged 

 to feed with their heads on one side." No doubt there is a good 

 deal of pure imagination in these descriptions, as in that of the oxen 

 of Phrv2fia, which were said to have horns as mobile as ears, but I 

 think we can accept the form or shape of the horns to be correct ; 

 though to know what to reject or accept is to me rather difficult 

 when I find the elephant spoken of as the '• Lucanian ox," Bos Luca. 

 According to the Homeric poems, bulls were found in a wild state 

 on the Greek mountains. We are told they were "larger than 

 our domestic bull," and " are of a tawny colour." Their hides also 

 were used for sleeping on. In these poems we also read of two 

 different breeds of cattle, Apollo's " heavy footed, crumpled-horned 

 oxen," and the " herd of straight-horned kine '" fashioned on the 

 shield of Achilles. Coming to Roman agricultural writers and 

 domestic cattle, we find a preference for dark-coloured animals. 



Yarro writes regarding cattle in general, " the strongest of 

 which is the hide with the red colour, the second that with the 

 black, the third that with the dun, and the fourth that with the 

 white." Columella writes as regards the labouring ox. "the hair 

 upon the whole body thick and short, the colour red or dark 

 brown;" and Palladius also says, "the hair upon the whole body 

 thick and short, of a red or dark-brown colour." The common 

 oxen in Italy to-day, arising from this ancient preference, are of a 

 reddish colour. Italian cattle are always whole coloured (Figs. 18, 

 19), and the voice of antiquity indicates self-coloured cattle as 

 always having been the rule. Yirgil is perhaps the only writer who 

 declares his own toleration of motley, and, in doing so, shows they 

 were not generally favoured by his contemporaries, yet older nations 

 believed in motley. In the Vedic literature of the ancient Aryan 

 people the great cow is brown and dark spotted, and called the 

 variegated cow. Black and white cows existed, for the Vedic poet 

 wonders why the cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the 

 light coloured, should both yield white milk. The red cow is also 

 mentioned as an objectionable offering to his satanic majesty. 

 But the Aryan race believed in cattle with long horns, and 

 have influenced other nations with the same belief. The 



