250 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



appearance of a white calf in a dark-coloured race was regarded 

 as a portent generally of good. We see the same superstition 

 current among the possessors of white cattle in this eountrv, 

 though reversed, the appearance of a black calf being regarded as 



a portent of evil, and 

 therefore carefully done 

 awav with.^ To this 

 superstition, then, as one 

 of our sources, mav we 

 trace the origin of white 

 cattle bv selection, and 

 their retention of that 

 colour by further selec- 

 tion. White animals, 

 such as white elephants, 

 white deer, and white 

 asses, have been, and are, 

 regarded with supersti- 



^"'jii-^i^ __i_.:^— _ tious favour. They have 



Fig. 21. -Statue of Mithras. ^^^^ ^^en much esteemed 



by man. The ancient Saxon standard was a white horse, and 

 white horses are carved on our land. Eight white horses of 

 the Nissean breed drew 

 Jupiter. The priests and 

 judges of Israel rode 

 on white asses, and a 

 " white bull " was in 

 the procession at the 

 coronation of the Pha- 

 raohs. The white bull 

 in India to-day is very 

 sacred to the Hindu. The 

 Romans, when thev first 

 occupied Britain, must have imported their sacrificial bulls, and 



Fig. 22. — Man ploughing in his tunic. 



(From an ancient gem in the 



Florentine Collection. ) 



^Regarding our ordinaiy cattle, Marshall, in 1788, wrote: — "A calf 

 entirely white is generally rejected, under a notion that white cattle are 

 of a tender nature ; that they are peculiarly subject to lousiness ; and that 

 they are disliked by their associates," 



