30 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



now at Chillingham, and at the Duke of Hamilton's 

 in Lanarkshire, a visit to see which, best done from 

 a tree, if we may judge by Sir Walter Scott's 

 description, forms a pleasant side-dish for the tourist 

 to the falls of Clyde) were a rare variety esteemed 

 for their beauty, and chiefly preserved in the parks 

 of the nobles ; the commoner sort being " a dark or 

 black coloured breed." Not to travel so far away 

 quite as the milk-white steer, fed by the sweet wave 

 of Clitumnus, "purest god of gentle waters," and 

 destined to lead the haughty Koman's triumph by 

 the Sacred Way, we find this colour of highest con- 

 sequence in the bulls, with the sacrifice of which 

 was closed that most solemn British religious fes- 

 tival on New Year's Day, when the Druids, each 

 habited in snowy robes, with flowing beard, the 

 mysterious wand in hand, and having a serpent's 

 egg enclosed in gold suspended from his neck, 

 walked in stately procession to the sacred mistletoe. 

 What a victim would " Windsor " or " Statesman " 

 have made ! 



Now that we are all running wild after African 

 intelligence, " it is worthy of remark in this present 

 place, that the skin of a white ox is considered by 

 some tribes as an emblem of peace, and is analogous 

 to the white bison hide, which is displayed by the 

 American Indians for similar purposes." (Rev. G. 

 Wood.) And here, having put in the lights of this 

 picture, we must adjourn to another. 



