THE GAYAL. 57 



neck, without frightening away the wild ones. He next 

 extends his hand to them, and caresses them also, at the 

 same time giving them plenty of his decoy balls to lick. 

 Thus, in the short space of time mentioned, he is able to 

 drive them, along with the tame ones, to his parrah, or 

 village, without the least exertion of force ; and so 

 attached do the Gyalls become to the parrah, that when 

 the Kookies migrate from one place to another, they 

 always find it necessary to set fire to the huts they are 

 about to abandon, lest the Gyalls should return to them 

 from the new grounds. 



It is worthy of remark that the new and full moon are 

 the periods at which the Kookies in general commence 

 their operations of catching the wild Gyalls, from having 

 observed that at these changes the two sexes are most 

 inclined to associate. The same observation has been 

 made with respect to Elephants. 



THE GAYAL. 



About four years after the publication of Mr. Macrae's 

 account of the Gyall (namely in 1808,) there appeared, in 

 the Eighth volume of ' Asiatic Kesearches/ a description 

 of a species of Ox, named Gayal, communicated by 

 H. T. Colebrooke. 



He commences by observing, that " the Gayal was 

 mentioned in an early volume of the ' Researches of the 

 Asiatic Society/ (vol. ii, p. 188, 1790,) by its Indian 

 name, which was explained by the phrase " Cattle of the 

 mountains." It had been obscurely noticed (if indeed the 

 same species of Ox be meant) by Knox, in his historical 

 relation of Ceylon (p. 21); and it has been imperfectly 



