THE NYL-GHAU. 385 



upon their fore-knees ; and when they were come 

 within some yards, they made a spring, and dart- 

 ed against each other. The intrepidity and force 

 with which they dart against any object, appeared 

 by the strength with which one of them attempt- 

 ed to overturn a poor labourer who unthinkingly 

 stood on the outside of the pales of its enclosure. 

 The nyl-ghau, with the quickness of lightning, 

 darted against the wood-work with such violence, 

 that he broke it to pieces, and broke off one of 

 his horns close to the root, which occasioned 

 the animal's death. At all the places in India 

 where we have settlements, they are considered 

 as rarities, and brought from the distant interior 

 parts of the country. The emperor sometimes 

 kills them in such numbers, as to distribute quar- 

 ters of them to all his omrahs ; which shows that 

 they are internally wild and in plenty, and esteem- 

 ed good and delicious food. The nyl-ghaus which 

 have been brought to England, have been most, 

 if not all of them, received from Surat or Bom- 

 bay, and they seem to be less uncommon in that 

 part of India than in Bengal ; which gives room 

 for a conjecture, that they may be indigenous, 

 perhaps, in the province of Guzarat, one of the 

 most western and the most considerable of the 

 Hindostan empire, lying to the northward of 

 Surat, and stretching away to the Indian Ocean, 



VOL. in. B b 



