488 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



most likely reached Europe through the old Cretan and ]\Iinos cul- 

 ture. Arthur Evans discovered pictures at Kjiossos in which horses 

 were transported upon ships. 



In a few words I would like to point out that the species of camels 

 appeared first under domestication in the interior of Asia and that 

 their distribution was relatively late. Europe received this Asiatic 

 contribution only in the south, and there even only locally. As a 

 curiosity it might be mentioned that the camel appeared in the 

 northern Alps at the beginning of the first century. I received a 

 fragment of an upper jaw from the Helvetian-Roman colony Vin- 

 donissa. The Romans probabl}' onl}^ introduced single animals for 

 show, for it is hardly possible that they were used for agricultural 

 purposes. 



The oldest center of domesticated cattle is situated in southeast 

 Asia. I devoted many je&TS to the cattle question and was able to 

 demonstrate upon the basis of proper anatomical material that a 

 single species, the banteng (Bos sondaicus), which still exists in the 

 wild state in those regions, constitutes the sole progenitor of that 

 stock. This stock migrated westward, namely, into Africa, and the 

 smaller races reached Europe, even in prehistoric times, where they 

 have continued to the present day as the smaller, short-horned race. 

 The Asiatic stock is the richest in individuals and the most universally 

 distributed. 



Of our domestic birds, the hen, as Dar%\nn has pointed out, is of 

 southeast Asiatic origin. In those regions alone combed chickens 

 occur in a wild state. We can follow the route of the hen over 

 Persia to Greece, where it arrived in the middle of the first centurj^ 

 B. C; that is, in historic times. 



The peacock also comes from southern Asia. 



The pigeon is probably of west Asiatic origin, for in histor}' it 

 appears first in the southeast corner of the Mediterranean, where it 

 is frequently associated vnih. cultural rites. On the other hand, the 

 pigeon was already well established during the older dynasties of 

 Egypt, and it is not impossible that it was first domesticated in the 

 valley of the Nile. We do not wish to discredit a considerable con- 

 tribution from Asia, but I have for years defended the position that 

 Africa has furnished us more than we have been accustomed to 

 admit. This African importation is quite considerable. 



Even the short-horned cattle, which reached Europe during the 

 neoHthic period and which has maintained its primitive form in 

 southern Europe, and has continued as the bro'u'n cattle of the central 

 Alps, it seems most plausible to me, appears to have reached Europe 

 from Asia by way of Africa. Even Rtitimeyer noticed that the 

 typical form was found in north Africa. T.,ately Prof. Naville has 

 found a wonderful stone statue of a sacred cow of the eighteenth 



