328 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book VIII. 



washed in warm water, or by having the entrails inflated with 

 air by means of a reed, introduced through an incision in the 

 skin. We must not look upon those kinds as having dege- 

 nerated, the appearance of which is not so favourable. Those 

 that are bred in the Alps, although very small of body, give a 

 great quantity of milk, and are capable of enduring much 

 labour ; they are yoked by the horns, and not by the neck. 

 The oxen of Syria have no dewlap, but they have a hump on 

 the back. Those of Caria also, which is in Asia, are un- 

 sightly 86 in appearance, having a hump hanging over the 

 shoulders from the neck ; and their horns are moveable j 87 

 they are said, however, to be excellent workers, though those 

 which are either black or white are condemned as worthless for 

 labour. 88 The horns of the bull are shorter and thinner than 

 those of the ox. Oxen must be broken in when they are three 

 years old ; after that time it is too late, and before that time 

 too early. The ox is most easily broken in by yoking it with 

 one that has already been trained. 89 This animal is our espe- 

 cial companion, both in labour generally, and in the operations 

 of agriculture. Our ancestors considered it of so much value, 

 that there is an instance cited of a man being brought before 

 the Eoman people, on a day appointed, and condemned, for 

 having killed an ox, in order to humour an impudent concu- 

 bine of his, who said that she had never tasted tripe ; and he 

 was driven into exile, just as though he had killed one of his 

 own peasants. 90 



86 " Foadi visu." This is very similar to the expression used by Virgil, 

 Georg. B. iii., when describing the points of an ox, 1. 52, "cui turpi 

 caput " " the head of which is unsightly " probably in allusion to its 

 large size. 



87 According to Cuvier, there is an ox, in warm climates, which has a 

 mass of fat on the shoulders, and whose horns are only attached to the 

 skin; Buffon has described it under the name of Zebu; Ajasson, vol. vi. 

 p. 461 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 512. B. 



88 " Ad laborem damnantur;" with respect to the colour, Varro, B. ii. 

 c. 5, has the following remarks : " The best colours are black, red, pale red, 

 and white. The latter ones are the most delicate, the first the most hardy. 

 Of the two middle ooes, the first is the best, and both are more valuable 

 than the first and last." 



89 We have an account of this process in Columella, B. ii. c. 6. B. 



90 This anecdote is related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. Virgil, 

 Georg. B. ii. 1. 537, speaks of the use of oxen in food, as a proof of the de- 

 generacy of later times, and as not existing during the Golden Age ; "Ante 

 Impia quam coesis gens est epulata juveneis." This feeling is alluded to 



