146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



thus men became possessed of domestic cattle, whose 

 tameness increased and whose shape and colour changed 

 after passing through successive generations in subjection. 

 By domesticating horned cattle man gained the use of 

 creatures well suited to promote his advancement from 

 savagery to civilization. The first use to which domesti- 

 cated cattle were put was probably that of carrying packs 

 and of moving tents and such like from place to place. 

 Then some ingenious savage was seized with the idea of 

 harnessing one of his tame bulls to the forked branch of a 

 tree and making him draw it up and down a field, tearing 

 up the ground, and so produced a great improvement 

 in agriculture by thus originating the plough. Then, 

 having experienced the beneficial effects of making the 

 strength of the bull assist his own, the primitive farmer 

 proceeded to put cattle to other occupations and made 

 them draw carts and wagons. 



The next advantage which man derived from horned 

 cattle after their use as working animals was from their 

 milk, which is the most perfect and complete form of 

 food ; and those nations which drink milk and use its 

 products, cheese and butter, are the strongest and most 

 enduring. With regard to the moral aspect of the owning 

 of cattle, nothing has been found more civilizing than the 

 possession of property, with its sympathies, its responsi- 

 bilities, and its independence. And among primitive men 

 cattle were the earliest forms of property. 



The clever and astute Jesuit missionaries who evan- 

 gelized South America made much use of this means of 

 civilization, and by introducing property in cattle they 

 raised the natives above the state of mere hunters, and by 

 improving their worldly condition they were able also to 

 promote their spiritual welfare. 



Asia is the headquarters of the genus Ovis, and the 

 domestic sheep is said to be derived from the different 



