NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»* S. IX. J ax. 7. '60. 



Addreus the Macedonian, who was contemporary 

 with Alexander the Great, likewise celebrates the 

 feat of Peucestes, in killing a wild bull in the 

 defiles of the Pseoman mountain of Doberus ; the 

 horns of which he converted into drinking cups, 

 as a memorial of his prowess (Anth. Pal, ix. 300.). 

 It is remarkable that this epigram in the Vatican 

 MS. is inscribed, 'ASaiov eh XlevKecrr-^v rbv Ka\ov- 

 nevov £o,*xl3pov Aoxeva-y-vra : for £6,uPpos is evidently 

 the same word as zubr, which, according to Schnei- 

 der, Eel. Phys., vol. ii. p. 25. (Jena, 1801), was 

 anciently zombr or zimbr, the native Polish name 

 of the Aurochs, to which reference will be pre- 

 sently made. 



The Prconian bull of Herodotus and Theo- 

 pompus, the Pseonian bonasus of Aristotle, the 

 Pasonian bison of Pausanias, and the Thmcian 

 bison of Oppian, are evidently the same animal. 

 Wild oxen, of great ferocity, are mentioned by 

 Varro as abundant in Dardania, Media, and 

 Thrace at his own time (R. R. ii. 1. 5.). 



Besides the Paaonian bonasus or bison, other 

 races of oxen are mentioned in antiquity as dis- 

 tinguished by the size of their horns. Thus 

 iElian {Nat. An. iii. 34.) states that the horn of 

 an Indian ox, containing three amphorae, was 

 brought to Ptolemy the Second. (A Greek am- 

 phora = 8 gallons 7 pints.) Pliny (viii. 70.) says 

 that the horns of Indian oxen are four feet in 

 width. The same writer reports that the northern 

 barbarians were accustomed to drink out of the 

 horns of the urus ; two of which contained a Ro- 

 man nrna (= 2 gallons 7| pints). Some horns 

 of a Sabine ox, of great size, were preserved in 

 the vestibule of the temple of Diana on the 

 Aventine at Rome, and were illustrated by a 

 sacred legend. (Livy, i. 45. ; Val. Max. vii. 3. 1.; 

 Victor, de Vir. III. 7.; Plut. Quasi. Rom. 4.) The 

 Molossian oxen had very large horns, the shape 

 of which was described by the historian Theo- 

 pompus. {Allien, xi. p. 468. D.) Buffbn re- 

 marks that some of the species of ox have horns 

 of great size : there was one (he says) in the 

 Cabinet du Roi, 3£ feet in length, and 7 inches in 

 diameter at the base ; he adds that several tra- 

 vellers declare themselves to have seen horns 

 which contained 15 and even 20 pints of fluid. 

 (Quad. torn. v. p. 75.) 



An account of a carnivorous race of wild oxen 

 in ^Ethiopia is given in Agatharchides, de Mari 

 Rubra, c. 76. with C. Midler's note; Diod. iii. 

 35. ; Strab. xvi. 4. 16. ; iElian, Nat. An. xvii. 45. ; 

 Plin. N. II. viii. 30. Most of the details are 

 fabulous. It may be observed that Oppian, in 

 the passage above cited, describes the Pa?onian 

 bison as a carnivorous animal. 



According to Cwsar, three wild animals were 

 found in the Hercynian forest. 1. An ox having 

 on its forehead one horn with antlers. 2. The 

 alces. 3. The urus, a large ox with a horn of 



great size, which was used as a drinking horn. (B. 

 G. vi. 26—8.) 



Macrobius, Sat. vi. 4. s. 23., commenting on 

 Virg. Georg. ii. 474., " Silvestres uri," says : — 

 " Uri Gallica vox est, qua feri boves significan- 

 tur." 



In the tragedy of Seneca, Hippolytus thus ad- 

 dresses Diana : — 



" Tibi dant varies pectora tigres, 

 Tibi villosi terga bisontes, 

 Latisque feri cornibus uri." — Hipp. 63 — 5. 



Pliny (viii. 15.) distinguishes the bison jubatus 

 from the urus, and makes them both natives of 

 Germany. He considers them as animals un- 

 known to the Greeks, and therefore as different 

 from the Pseonian ox, the description of which he 

 copies from Aristotle ; for in another passage he 

 states that the Greeks had never ascertained the 

 medicinal properties of the urus and the bison, 

 although the forests of India abounded with wild 

 oxen (xxviii. 45.). 



According to Solinus, c. 20., in the Hercynian 

 forest, and in all the north of Europe, the bison 

 abounded ; a wild ox with a shaggy mane, swifter 

 than a bull, and incapable of domestication. He 

 likewise states that the horns of the urus were of 

 such a magnitude, as to be used for drinking 

 vessels at the tables of kings. 



The bison was one of the. animals brought to 

 Rome for the combats or hunts in the circus. Thus 

 Martial describing the prowess of a certain Car- 

 pophorus, in fighting with wild animals in the 

 Roman amphitheatre, says: "Illi cessit atrox bu- 

 balus atque bison." (Spect. 23.) Again, in 

 speaking of the games of the circus, he says : — 



" Turpes csseda quod trahunt bisontes." — i. 105. 



Lastly, in his enumeration of a number of 

 things which are not so worn as the old clothes of 

 Hedylus, he includes — 



" Rasura cavea latus bisontis." — ix. 58. 

 — an allusion to the cage in which the animal was 

 kept at Rome. Compare Horat. Art. Poet, ad 

 fin. : " Velut ursus objectos cavere valuit si fran- 

 gere clathros." Dio Cassius (lxxvi. 1.) describes 

 a great celebration of games in the time of Se- 

 vcrus (202 a.d.), at which 700 animals were let 

 loose and slain in the amphitheatre, namely, 

 bears, lions and lionesses, leopards, ostriches, wild 

 asses, and bisons. " The latter," says Dio, " is a 

 species of oxen, savage both in its race and its 

 appearance" (JZapSapiKbv rb yevos kx\ rijv uif/iv). 



The bubalus is coupled by Martial with the 

 bison ; he mentions them both as animals killed 

 in the games of the circus. Pliny (viii. 15.) states 

 that the bubalus was in his time commonly con- 

 founded with the urus ; whereas the former was 

 properly an African animal, resembling both the 

 ox and the deer. Herodotus (iv. 192.) and Poly- 

 bius (xii. 3.) mention the bubalus as an African 



