682 WANDERINGS OF THE WATER BUFFALO. 



have for ages done a regular trade in carrying horses from the west 

 coast of India to the Persian Gulf. It is probably one of the oldest 

 forms of shipping which exists, and the Arabs who now ship horses 

 from Bombay to the Persian Gulf may have been in the cattle trade 

 in very early days. It is also probable that in the era of Hindoo 

 maritime enterprise these creatures were taken both to the Far East 

 and to the east coast of Africa. The circumstances which led to their 

 introduction into Italy and Spain are probably to be found in some 

 existing record; but it is not one generally known, the nearest surmise 

 being that they may have been given to a Longobardian king with 

 other animals by the chief of a horde of Asiatic invaders. They were 

 not known in Italy in Roman times. But if they had been introduced 

 as recently as the camels which are still used on one of the royal estates 

 in Tuscany (an enterprise due to the Medici), the fact would probably 

 have been matter of common knowledge. 



