248 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
than this, except that their hide is thicker and harder,” Pliny 
has a somewhat similar description of a race of cattle. He writes, 
“the cattle of the Troglodvtz were not like other oxen, for their 
horns pointed downwards to the ground, so that they were obliged 
to feed with their heads on one side.” No doubt there is a good 
deal of pure imagination in these descriptions, as in that of the oxen 
of Phrygia, which were said to have horns as mobile as ears, but I 
think we can accept the form or shape of the horns to be correct ; 
though to know what to reject or accept is to me rather difficult 
when I find the elephant spoken of as the “‘ Lucanian ox,” Bos Luca. 
According to the Homeric poems, bulls were found in a wild state 
on the Greek mountains. We are told they were ‘larger than 
our domestic bull,” and “are of a tawny colour.” Their hides also 
were used for sleeping on. In these poems we also read of two 
different breeds of cattle, Apollo’s “ heavy footed, erunipled-horned 
oxen,” and the “‘herd of straight-horned kine” fashioned on the 
shield of Achilles. Coming to Roman agricultural writers and 
domestic cattle, we find a preference for dark-coloured animals. 
Varro writes regarding cattle in general, “the strongest of 
which is the hide with the red colour, the second that with the 
black, the third that with the dun, and the fourth that with the 
white.” Columella writes as regards the labouring ox, “the hair 
upon the whole body thick and short, the colour red or dark 
brown ;” and Palladius also says, ‘‘the hair upon the whole body 
thick and short, of a red or dark-brown colour.” The common 
oxen in Italy to-day, arising from this ancient preference, are of a 
reddish colour, Italian cattle are always whole coloured (Figs. 18, 
19), and the voice of antiquity indicates self-coloured cattle as 
always having been the rule. Virgil is perhaps the only writer who 
declares his own toleration of motley, and, in doing so, shows they 
were not generally favoured by his contemporaries, yet older nations 
believed in motley. In the Vedic literature of the ancient Aryan 
people the great cow is brown and dark spotted, and called the 
variegated cow. Black and white cows existed, for the Vedic poet 
wonders why the cows of Indras, the black ones as well as the 
light coloured, should both yield white milk. The red cow is also 
mentioned as an objectionable offering to his satanic majesty. 
- But the Aryan race believed in cattle with long horns, and 
have influenced other nations with the same belief. The 
