214 THE INDIAN OX OR ZEBU. 



sufferers shout and make a noise, to drive him away ; 

 but he soon despises this vociferation, and eats hearti- 

 ly until he is satisfied. These consecrated bulls be- 

 come in consequence of these free quarters very fat, 

 and are fine animals to look at, but very destructive. 

 The wives are given away to Brahmins, and he sel- 

 dom sees them again. The two last Rajahs of Di- 

 najepoor, among other expedients which they devised 

 with great success to ruin themselves, consecrated 

 in this manner about two thousand cows, and as no 

 person presumed to molest the sacred animals, the 

 vicinity soon became desolate, and the magistrate 

 was at last compelled to sell them all, with the ex- 

 ception of one hundred, which were left to the widow 

 to soothe her misfortune."* 



These breeds have all the inward grunting call 

 heard in the Yak and some other Indian animals, 

 not the open bellow of the true bull, and this has led 

 to the conjecture that there was some intermixture 

 between the European domestic races and the wild 

 animals of India. 



The domestic breeds of cattle in Europe are ex- 

 tremely numerous, varying with the nature and cli- 

 mate of the district, according as their proprietors have 

 desired an animal fitted for the dairy or the butcher. 

 As in the sheep, they had not the improvement 

 of the fleece to assist in the returns of profit, and 



* Hamilton's Descript. of Hindostan. 





