WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 403 



White Cattle : An Inquiry into their Origin and History. 



By R. Hedger Wallace. 



[Read 27th December, 1898.] 



Part Ib. 



I NOW pass on to note what might be considered the historical 



data on -svhich some of the statements already made have been 



based (pp. 220-273). The endeavour has been made to place 



them in some order, but it is not claimed that the arrangement 



is chronological. 



We obtain some information from comparing the Authorised 



and Revised Versions of the Bible, ^ and the explanatory aids to 



the same by our modern divines. The first thing noticeable in 



comparing the two is that the wild bull and unicorn of the one 



have become the antelope and wild ox of the other. For 



example : — 



Authorised Version of 1611. Revised Version of 1885. 



{a) The hart, and the roebuck, (a) " . . . the hart, and the 



and the fallow-deer, and the wild gazelle, and the roebuck, and the 



goat, and the pygarg, \ and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and 



wild ox, and the chamois." — the antelope, and the chamois." — 



Deut. xiv. 5. Deut. xiv. 5. 



(&) "as a wild bull in a net." (6) "as an antelope in a net." — 



~Isa. li. 20. Isa. li. 20. 



Canon Tristram, w^riting on this point, says : " Wild Bull " — the 

 word so rendered is neither the bison nor the bufialo, but some 

 species of large antelope, formerly much more common than now. 

 It is probably Alceijhalus hubalis, the bubale or " wild cow " of the 

 Arabs. A writer in the Edinburgh Review (1886) also points 

 this out, and further states that the white antelope {Oryx leucoryx), 

 still found on the confines of Palestine, was hunted by the ancient 

 Egyptians, who also kept large numbers of them in the preserves 

 of their villas. It w^as know^n to them as the "white antelope." 



i According to the Bible the Jews were enjoined to sacrifice " a red 

 heifer without spot." — Numhtrs xix. 2. 

 - Or bison (Heb. Dishon). 



