280 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



the hope of subjugating it; nor does any record re- 

 main of the difficult training which, perhaps pro- 

 longed through centuries, finally reduced the wild 

 creature to a state of docility. The very first his- 

 torical reference to the ox in the earliest annals 

 of our race shows him to us as a patient, docile beast, 

 submissive to the yoke, and in short no other than 

 he is to-day. 



"But if these bull-tamers of ancient times remain 

 unknown, all the East preserves the memory of their 

 invaluable achievement. The man was forgotten, 

 but the animal was feted, here in one way, there in 

 another, according to the fancy of a simple, imagi- 

 native people striving in every possible manner to 

 evince gratitude for services rendered. I have told 

 you of ancient Egypt and its raising of marble tem- 

 ples to the bull, and I have also described its practice 

 of bowing the forehead to the dust when the majestic 

 beast passed with its retinue of attendants. Else- 

 where it was enjoined on every one as a religious 

 duty of the most sacred kind to raise at least one ox ; 

 and, again, in still another country, where horned 

 cattle were not yet plentiful enough to make it per- 

 missible to use them for food, the laws punished with 

 death anybody who killed or even maltreated one of 

 these animals. In our day, in India, the cow is a 

 thrice-sacred animal. Its tail, symbol of honor, is 

 carried as a standard before the great; and to win 

 favors from Heaven the people believe there is no 

 surer way than to smear the body with cow's dung 

 and then go and wash in the waters of the Ganges. 



