250 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
appearance of a white calf in a dark-coloured race was regarded 
as a portent generally of good. We see the same superstition 
current among the possessors of white cattle in this country, 
though reversed, the appearance of a black calf being regarded as 
a portent of evil, and 
therefore carefully done 
away with.t To this 
superstition, then, as one 
of our sources, may we 
trace the origin of white 
cattle by selection, and 
their retention of that 
colour by further selec- 
tion. White animals, 
such as white elephants, 
white deer, and white 
asses, have been, and are, 
regarded with supersti- 
tious favour. They have 
ever been much esteemed 
by man. The ancient Saxon standard was a white horse, and 
white horses are carved on our land. Eight white horses of 
the Niszan breed drew 
Jupiter. The priests and 
judges of Israel rode 
on white asses, and a 
“white bull” was in 
the procession at the 
coronation of the Pha- ; , y | 
raohs. The white bull ee oe re 
Fie. 22.—Man ploughing in his tunic. 
(From an ancient gem in the 
Florentine Collection. ) 



in India to-day is very 
sacred tothe Hindu. The 
Romans, when they first 
occupied Britain, must have imported their sacrificial bulls, and 


1 Regarding our ordinary cattle, Marshall, in 1788, wrote :—‘‘ A calf 
entirely white is generally rejected, under a notion that white cattle are 
of a tender nature ; that they are peculiarly subject to lousiness ; and that 
they are disliked by their associates,” 
