INDIA* CATTLE. 71 



mortality per mille is only "01 18 In other words only one man dies 

 of snake-bite in abont 100,000, in these Deccan districts, while in 

 tlir Eeh /.s'-ridden tracts one man dies in every 5,000. Daboias and 

 k raits are probably nowhere so common in Western India as to 

 have much appreciable effect on the mortality. But cobras are 

 quite as common, I believe 9 in these Deccan districts as they are in 

 Ratnagiri or Sind. This shows, I think, pretty conclusively that the 

 Edits — and not the cobi-a, or any other venomous snake — is chiefly 

 responsible for deaths from snake-bite in Bombay. 



Enough has been said above to shW the importance of having 

 accurate and as far as possible exhaustive records of the distribution 

 of species, and this applies not only to the case of the venomous 

 snakes, with which I have particularly dealt, but to all branches of 

 Natural History. Our Society has already done much useful work 

 in this direction, thanks to the individual as well as collective energy 

 of its members. But a great field is still open to collectors, and 

 much still remains to be done in taking stock, and preparing cata- 

 logues of the numerous and valuable contributions already received. 



INDIAN CATTLE. 

 By J. H. Steel, A.V.D. 

 {Read at the Society's Meeting on 6th February 1890.) 

 Not the least striking feature of life in India is the enormous 

 importance of cattle, and the manner in which they are extensively 

 concerned in trade, agriculture, traffic, and food supply. This is 

 fully recognised in the religions of those peoples who are more 

 essentially the inhabitants of India. Thus sacredness of the cow as 

 an emblem of fruitfulness, and veneration of the bull as a symbol of 

 generative power, are characteristic features of the Hindoo religion, 

 and of these we see as outward and visible signs, the Nundee, or 

 Sacred Bull, occupying an honoured place in the shrines, and the cow 

 wandering freely through the streets, sleek and fat on grain appro- 

 priated from the baskets of not unwilling merchants. The sacred 

 injunctions of the religion of the Hindoos seem to have been wisely 

 designed with two aims ; firstly, the preservation of cows in time of 



