MAMMALIA. 249 



prehension of the character of the animal, they have very 

 generally concluded that the unicorn of the English 

 scriptures was the buffalo. Gesenius, Hengstenburgh, 

 and De Wette, in Germany, render the word by " der 

 Buffel ;" and Stuart, Robinson, and Noyes, in America, 

 say buffalo. " The oriental buffalo," observes one, " ap- 

 pears to be so closely allied to our common ox that, with- 

 out attentive examination, it might be easily mistaken for 

 a variety of that animal." The Karens say, a sheep is "a 

 kind of a goat ;" and by a parity of reasoning, a buffalo is a 

 kind of an ox ; but in no other way. The buffalo, with 

 its black and almost hairless skin, " huge horns," and 

 clumsy body, affords a strong contrast to the red hairy 

 skin, short horns and more elegant appearance of the com- 

 mon ox. 



Barnes says, it is " an animal which differs from 

 the American buffalo only in the shape of the horns and 

 the absence of the dewlap." It is well known that the 

 American buffalo is not a buffalo, but a bison, and the two 

 differ from each other much more than either from the 

 common ox ; and according to modern naturalists, the 

 difference between them is not merely specific, but gener- 

 ic — the buffaloes forming one genus, and the bisons anoth- 

 er. According to Swainson, the buffaloes have " a small 

 dewlap on the breast," but they differ from the bisons a- 

 mong other things in having " no hunch on the back." no 

 very " long hair under the jaw and throat," and no mane 

 upon the shoulders. The buffalo too, has one pair of ribs 

 less than the bison, and is altogether a widely different 

 animal. 



Barnes remarks again of the buffalo, that it " has beeR 

 recently domesticated;" but in the laws of Menoo, the great 

 Hindu legislator, who is supposed to have written about 

 the time of David, domesticated buffaloes are often men- 

 tioned. It would appear that in his days, they were used 

 to draw carts; for in one place he says : " It a man shall 

 be driving a cart, and his bullocks or buffaloes start and 

 run against a house, he shall not be held in fault. If he 

 run against the steps, let him put up new ones. If he run 

 -against the balustrades, let him replace them ; there is no 



