118 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



Hottentots contains a herd of these creatures, which, when 

 let loose against the enemy, overturn men and everything 

 in their way, striking with their horns and trampling with their 

 feet everyone who opposes them, and frequently procuring for 

 their masters an easy victory. In the internecine wars of the 

 Hottentots one with another these animals (backeleyers) work 

 terrible havoc, goring and kicking and trampling to death with 

 almost incredible fury. They are, however, while not excited in 

 the struggle, very docile creatures, and personally know every 

 inhabitant of the kraal, being quite harmless to them, but, on 

 the contrary, very ferocious towards, and ready to run with fury 

 at, any strangers. The backely lives in the same cottage as it& 

 master, for whom the animal displays feelings of affection. 

 When the creature dies, a new backely is selected to succeed him 

 by a council composed of the old men of the village. The newly- 

 selected backely is then placed with one of the veterans of his 

 own kind, and from him he learns his art, and is taken for the 

 term of his life into direct friendship by his master. 



The readiness with which the draught oxen of South Africa 

 observe and obey the words of the driver is said to be very great, 

 although in the process of training them severe measures are 

 often required, particularly that of inserting a hooked stick 

 through the cartilage which separates the two nostrils. This 

 reminds us of our modern method of ringing bulls before sending 

 them to exhibitions of cattle. Moreover, oxen which have been 

 already trained are employed for the purpose of training younger 

 oxen. Again, in some parts of Africa the ox is employed for 

 riding as well as for draught. In this case the horns, which are 

 very long, are first split up into ribbons and shreds, or, perhaps, 

 curved in various directions, in order to obviate the possibility 

 of their points coming into contact with the person of the rider 

 in consequence of any untoward accident. The pace of an ox i& 

 slow, seldom exceeding four and a half miles an hour. We may 

 conclude our brief review of foreign cattle by the observation 

 that some of the herds of oxen found in South America have a 

 skull of peculiar conformation, the bones of the nose and the 

 jaw-bones being very short. 



