PATEiAEOHAL AGES.] CATTLE, AND THEIE YAEIETIES. [patriarchal ages. 



patriarchal simplicity, such scenes as we have 

 seen delineated by the pencil of Berghem were 

 not imaginary; and the pastoral poetry of 

 classical antiquity has not only rendered them 

 familiar, but thrown an air of grace, and even 

 dignity over them. 



In the fourth chapter of the Book of Genesis 

 (ver. 20) we read of Jabal, that " he was the 

 father of such as dwelt in tents, aud of such 

 as have cattle." In the thirteenth chapter of 

 the same book, cattle are enumerated as form- 

 ing part of the riches of Abraham, and also of 

 Lot ; and in the previous chapter we read, that 

 oxen were presented hy the Pharaoh of Egypt, 

 together with sheep, asses, and camels, to 

 Abram, during his sojourn in that land. In 

 the eighteenth chapter, veal, or the flesh of the 

 calf, and butter and milk, are mentioned as 

 articles of food. Subsequently, abundant men- 

 tion is made of all these domestic animals ; 

 while, at the same time, we glean that a wild 

 race of oxen long continued to exist in Syria 

 and the adjacent regions. Eor instance, in the 

 Mosaic injunctions regarding animals to be 

 used as food (Deut. xiv. 5), the wild ox is ex- 

 pressly noticed ; and Isaiah alludes also to the 

 wild bull, " as a wild bull in a net." Hence it 

 would appear, that though a domestic breed, 

 established at a period antecedent to historical 

 record, tlie Scripture outline excepted, formed 

 part of the wealth of man m the primeval ages 

 of his history, that a wild race still tenanted 

 their aboriginal pasture-lands. Wild oxen are 

 exhibited in the Egyptian sculptures, and they 

 are frequently represented as objects of the chase. 

 They were sometimes hunted with dogs, the 

 huntsmen bearing bows and arrows; and some- 

 times they were caught with the noose or lasso. 



The utility of the ox was highly appreciated 

 in remote ages, insomuch, that it became an 

 emblematic object of worship among most 

 of the nations of antiquity. The traditions 

 of every Celtic nation place the cow on the list 

 of the earliest of animals, and represent it as 

 a kind of divinity. Among the Egyptians, the 

 god Apis was worshipped in the form of a bull ; 

 and Herodotus describes the ceremonies per- 

 formed at the choosing of this bovine deity, to 

 whose honour other bulls, chosen by the priests, 

 were sacrificed. The goddess Isis was repre- 

 sented, by the same people, by the figure of a 

 woman with the horns of a cow, as the Grecians 

 614 



represented lo ; and the sacrificial offering was 

 a bullock. The cow was never sacrificed, being 

 sacred to Isis. The veneration of the cow was 

 equally prevalent in Lybia. The people of that 

 country, says Herodotus, from Egypt to the 

 Lake Tritonis, are breeders of cattle, eat flesh, 

 and drink milk, but abstain from the flesh of 

 cows, as do also the Egyptians ; and they will not 

 keep swine. Nay, among the" women of Syrene, 

 to strike a cow is accounted a crime, because 

 they celebrate the feasts and festivals of the 

 Egyptian Isis. Neither will the Barcsean 

 women taste the flesh of a hog or of a cow. 



In India, where, in many points, the practice 

 and worship of the ancient nations were the 

 same as those of the Egyptians, the ox was 

 held sacred, and still is so by the Brahmins. 

 One of the causes of the Sepoy rebellion of 

 1857, is ascribed to some imaginary greased 

 cartridges having been served out to the native 

 soldiery. The religious writings of India say 

 that the cow was the first animal created by 

 the three gods, who were directed by the 

 supreme lord to furnish the earth with animated 

 beings. In the sculptures of the cave-temples 

 of Ellora, the sacred bull is represented with 

 great truth and spirit. In the Transactions of 

 the Moyal Asiatic Society, vol. ii., page 560, 

 Colonel Tod says — " In Hindu mythology, the 

 bull Nanda is at once the guardian of one of 

 the two gates of heaven, of Iswaro or Bal-Siva, 

 and his steed. The astronomic allusion thus 

 blended with mythology is evident — viz., the 

 entrance of the sun into the sign Taurus, the 

 equinoctial festival of remote antiquity, and 

 regarded as a jubilee by the Indo-Scythic 

 nations hemming the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Indian Ocean." "We need not 

 say how the idolatry of the Egyptians aflfected 

 the Israelites, and mingled itself with the re- 

 ligious ceremonies of other nations, whose 

 worship required the ox as a sacrifice to 

 imaginary deities. 



The estimation in which the ox was held, 

 and which led to its consecration, did not 

 arise from the circumstance alone of the cow 

 yielding milk, or from the value of the flesh 

 of the animal as food, but from its services in 

 agricultural labour. It was employed as a 

 beast of burden, for the cart, for the plough, 

 and for treading out the grain from the ear. 

 The Mosaic ritual lays down several rules 



