BOS PRIMIGENIUS. 503 
It is remarkable that the two kinds of great wild oxen 
recorded in the ‘Niebelungen Lied,’ of the twelfth 
century, as having been slain with other beasts of chase in 
the great hunt of the Forest of Worms, are mentioned under 
the same names which they received from the Romans : 
“ Dar nach schluch er schiere, einen Wésent und einen Elch, 
Starcher Ure vier, und einen grimmen Schelch : ” 
* After this he straightway slew a Bison and an Elk 
Of the strong Ur7 four, and a single fierce Schelch.” 
The image of the great Urus in the full vigour of life is 
powerfully depicted in a later poem, destined, perhaps, 
to be as immortal as the ‘ Niebelungen ? 
** Mightiest of all the beasts of chase 
That roam in woody Caledon, 
Crushing the forest in his race 
The Mountain Bull comes thundering on.” 
But the following stanza shows that Scott drew his picture 
from the Chillingham wild-cattle : 
“ Fierce, on the hunter’s quiver’d hand 
He rolls his eye of swarthy glow ; 
Spurns, with black hoofs and horns, the sand, 
And tosses high his mane of snow.” 
Scorr, Ballad of Cadgow Castle. 
Mr. Woods cites the fact of the discovery of the skull 
and horns of the great Urus in a tumulus of the Wilt- 
shire Downs, as evidence that a “ very large race of genuine 
taurine oxen originally existed in this country, although 
most probably entirely destroyed by the aboriginal in- 
habitants before the invasion of Britain by Cesar, since 
they are not mentioned as natives of Britain by him.” * 
The span of the horn-cores, in the mstance cited by Mr. 
Woods, was thirty-three inches, and the circumference of 
each at the base fifteen mches and a half. ‘* Many bones 
* Op. cit. p: 26. 
