300 INFLUENCE OF MUSIC ON CATTLE. 



ed, and caressed, they express their complacence by 

 a peculiar kind of breathing, that gives the idea of 

 placid content. Nor is this the only expression of 

 their sensibility. On meeting their old acquaintance 

 after a long absence, they greet them with plaintive 

 lowings. They acquire a taste for music, too, whilst 

 dwelling in these vocal cottages, where the voice of 

 song is so frequently heard. This riual melody cer- 

 tainly calms the initation produced by heat and in- 

 sects in a summer's evening, when, without it, they 

 could not be milked with safety. This is a fact so 

 well estabhshed, that a girl is not thought fit for 

 a dairy-maid unless she can sing ; and if it so hap- 

 pens, in some rare instance, that one who has no 

 power of voice is selected for this employment, she 

 takes another with her who can sing, to assist in 

 milking, and to lull the fold with the wonted strains 

 that are peculiar to this avocation ; the theme of 

 which is generally either the habits of cattle, their 

 favourite summer haunts, or the simple adventures 

 of those who attend them. Thus fondled, and made 

 at one period, as it were, a part of society, and at 

 another let loose to the boundless range of the sum- 

 mer pastures, they are in some degree cultivated, 

 and retain much of the instinctive faculty, without 

 any of the ferocity, of the wild animal of the same 



