(Pe 
WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 261 
while it was a province of the Roman Empire. We know that 
the Romans imported British bulls (of which our black Welsh 
are descendants) for the spectacles of the amphitheatre, and the 
colour to this day of the bulls which appear at bull-fights is black. 
After the evacuation of the country by the Romans there 
followed a period of unrest. The country was subject to waves 
of invasion, all the invaders bringing their own breed or class 
of cattle with them. As they came they pushed back their 
predecessors till the Celts, the first comers, with their cattle— 
native, Roman, and cross—came to what is now known as the 
Celtic fringe. Yet through all this turmoil the superstitious or 
traditional regard inherited from the Romans, and even from the 
Druids, for white cattle must never have been lost. The cult of 
the sacrificial bull seems to have impressed itself deeply on the 
inhabitants of these islands. As far north as the Moray Firth 
thirty figures of bulls, of stone and Roman handiwork. have been 
dug up on its shores. We read of bulls being killed “‘as an alms 
and oblation to St. Cuthbert” in the twelfth century at Kirkeud- 
bright. In Mitchell’s “ Past in the Present” an extract is given 
from the records of the Presbytery of Dingwall. That body met on 
5th September, 1656, to inquire into the backsliding of a parish 
within its bounds, and thev find “amongst uther abhominable 
and heathenische practices that the people in that place were 
accustomed to sacrifice bulls at.a certaine tyme uppon the 25 of 
August.” I think it will be allowed that our forefathers, from the 
dawn of history, have had a reputation as cattle breeders, conse- 
quently they would be more apt to retain customs and superstitions 
—Druidical. Roman, or Saxon—which applied to cattle, than to 
any other thing. Ifit can be shown that some of these super- 
stitious customs have come down to comparatively recent times, it 
will, I hope, be admitted that the reverence for white sacrificial 
cattle would also be as strong among the people. One of these 
customs in connection with cattle is recorded in the Gentleman’s 
Magazine for February, 1791, as being a common practice in Here- 
fordshire and Gloucestershire. It is termed ‘‘the antient ceremony 
of wassailing.” The correspondent in the Gentleman’s Magazine 
writes that ‘‘on the eve of Twelfth Day, at the approach of evening, 
the farmers, their friends, servants, &c., all assemble, and near six 
o'clock all walk together to a field where wheat is growing;” here 
