xiv INTRODUCTION. 



Felix Lajard, in his ' Culte cle Mithra,' and die 

 'Culte de Venus,' has shown how large a part the 

 Bull played in the spiritual imagination of those 

 ancient people. And we must confess that the wild 

 bull exhibits the type of masculinity, and courage. 



It seems to have followed as a natural con- 

 sequence that the Assyrians, who had become well 

 acquainted with this indomitable animal in their 

 hunts, should have selected his horns as an emblem 

 of Divine power ; and that he should figure con- 

 tinually in their mythology. 



We may be too apt to look upon the Assyrians, 

 from the point of view of biblical traditions, and 

 the bias of centuries, as a holy set of beings, who 



the perfection of masculine vigour, and indomitable courage, form 

 the combination, which has attracted the adoration of mankind." 

 Then at p. 55, he says : "The charge of a buffalo is a very serious 

 matter .... a buffalo is a devil incarnate, when it has once decided 



upon the offensive There is no creature in existence that is 



so determined to stamp out the life of its opponents, and the intensity 

 of fury is unsurpassed, when a wounded bull buffalo rushes forward 

 upon the last desperate charge .... it will not only gore the body 

 with its horns, but it will endeavour to tear it to pieces, and will kneel 

 upon the hfeless form, and stamp it with its hoofs, until the mutilated 

 remains are disfigured beyond all recognition." All this shows what 

 an infuriated bull means. But after all this eulogium of so noble 

 and fearless a creature, it is hardly fair for Sir Samuel to write on 

 p. 56 : "I have killed some hundreds of these animals, and I never 

 regret their destruction, as they are naturally vicious, and most 

 dangerous brutes, whose ferocity is totally uncalled for ! " This, 

 in the mouth of a hunter who goes to destroy this fine animal in its 

 own haunts, and not because it comes to attack him in his house, 

 sounds strange. Because it defends itself, with all the ferocity natural 

 to it, and in order to protect its females, and their young ones, it is 

 called ' a dangerous brute, whose ferocity is totally uncalled for ! ' 



