194 SELECTION. Ch/lp. XX. 



the flesh of a- spotted ox. The Kaffirs value an animal with 

 a musical voice ; and " at a sale in British Kaffraria the low 

 " of a heifer excited so much admiration that a sharp com 

 " petition si3rung up for her possession, and she realised a 

 *' considerable price." ^* "With respect to sheep, the Chinese 

 prefer rams without horns ; the Tartars prefer them with 

 Bpirally wound horns, because the hornless are thought to 

 lose courage.^^ Some of the Damaras will not eat the flesh 

 of hornless sheep. In regard to horses, at the end of the 

 fifteenth centur^^ animals of the colour described as Hart 

 pomme were most valued in France. Ihe Arabs have a 

 proverb, " Kever buy a horse with four white feet, for he 

 carries his shroud with him ; "^^ the Arabs also, as we have 

 8^en, despise dun-coloured horses. So with dogs, Xenophon 

 and others at an ancient period were prejudiced in favour of 

 certain colours ; and " white or slate-coloured hunting dogs 

 were not esteemed." ^^ 



Turning to poultry, the old Eoman gourmands thought 

 that the liver of a white goose was the most savoury. In 

 Paraguay black-skinned fowls are kept because they are 

 thought to be more productive, and their flesh the most proper 

 for invalids.^** In Guiana, as 1 am informed by Sir R. Schom- 

 burgk, the aborigines will not eat the flesh or eggs of the 

 fowl, but two races are kept distinct merely for ornament. 

 In the Philippines, no less than nine sub-varieties of the game- 

 cock are kept and named, so that they must be separately 

 bred. 



At the present time in Europe, the smallest peculiarities 

 are carefully attended to in our most useful animals, either 

 from fashion, or as a mark of purity of blood. Many examples 

 could be given ; two will suffice. " In the Western counties 

 *' of England the prejudice against a white pig is nearly as 

 " strong as against a black one in Yorkshire." In one of the 



«* Livingstone's Travels, p. 576 ; «« F. Michel, ' Des Haras,' pp. 47, 



Andersson, 'Lake Ngaiiii,' 1856, p. 50. 



222. With respect to the sale in *^ Col. Hamilton Smith, Dogs, in 



Kaffraria, see ' Quarterly Review,' * Nat. Lib.,' vol. x. p. 103. 



1860, p. 139. ^^ Azara, ' Quadrupfedes du Para- 



" ' Memoiresur les Chinois'(by the guay,' torn, ii, p. 324. 

 Jesuits), J 786, torn. xi. p. 57. 



