BOS PRIMIGENIUS 9 



The ancestors of the British wild cattle were 

 therefore mighty and untameable monsters of 

 unconquerable ferocity, and none could be found 

 more likely than the Uri of the Hercynian forest 

 in Western Germany. Caesar describes three 

 extraordinary animals there : first, a stag-like 

 ox, with a horn springing from the middle of its 

 forehead between the ears. Next, an elk with 

 no knots or joints in its legs, 1 which could not lie 

 down. If it fell by accident it could not get up 

 again, and, so, it must recline against trees by way 

 of going to bed, a habit which was its undoing, 

 for the Germans of those days undermined or 

 weakened the trees and, so, captured the elks that 

 leant against them and fell. Last, the Uri. 2 



" The third of these three beasts are called 

 Uri. In size they are a trifle smaller than 

 elephants; in kind, colour, and shape they are 

 bulls. Great is their strength and great their 

 speed ; nor, having espied them, do they spare 

 either men or beasts. They are sedulously 

 captured in pits and slain : the young men 

 hardening themselves by such toil and training 

 themselves by this kind of sport : and they who 

 have killed most Uri, proclaimed as such by 

 the horns being exhibited in public, receive 

 great commendation. But it is not possible to 

 accustom the Uri to men or to tame them, not 



1 Crura sine nodis articulisque habent. 



2 " Gallic War," bk. vi. chapter xxviii. 



