THE INDIAN OX OR ZEBU. 213 



the vicinity of Surat. The variety we have figured 

 is of large size, the horns small, and the ears large 

 and rather pendulous. 



In India, where they have not been consecrated, 

 they are used for burden and tillage, and are mild- 

 tempered and gentle. They are also used occasion- 

 ally for the saddle and in harness, and travel with 

 considerable speed, from twenty to thirty miles being 

 accomplished in a day. Among the Hindoo sects 

 they are consecrated, and as with many other of the 

 animals employed in the mythology of that remark- 

 able people, are fed and pampered and allowed to 

 use their freedom anywhere with impunity, severe 

 penalties being inflicted on any one who will molest 

 them, even when destroying their growing crops or 

 other property. 



" The Brahminy, or sacred bull of the Hindoos, 

 rambles about the country without interruption ; he 

 is caressed and pampered by the people, to feed him 

 being deemed a meritorious act of religion. In many 

 parts of Bengal, an absurd custom prevails, which 

 frequently occasions much damage to the farmers. 

 When a rich young man dies, and the ceremony in 

 commemoration of ancestors has been performed, a 

 young bull is consecrated, with much solemnity, to 

 Siva, and married to four cows ; he is then turned 

 loose, after having been marked ; he may then go 

 where he pleases, and it is not lawful to beat him, 

 even if he be eating a valuable crop, or enter a shop 

 and there devour the grain exposed for sale. The 



