TAME BUFFALOES MORE THAN HALF FERAL 81 



he wends his way, in the hopes that it will fall on him and 

 impale him, which it sometimes does. But if any one 

 (European) is near, they go to him and ask him to shoot the 

 intruder, which I have done for them many a time ; but as 

 that has generally to be done on foot, it is somewhat dangerous, 

 and some hairbreadth escapes have been recorded in Incidents 

 of Foreign Sport. The very big bulls are not so numerous 

 now as formerly, yet still bulls with horns close up to 12 

 feet measurement from one tip to the other round the outer 

 curve and across the narrow forehead are still to be found ; 

 the cows have longer horns, but not so thick. The largest on 

 record is, I believe, one I gave to Lord Mayo when Viceroy 

 of India; the measurements of which were 13 feet 8 

 inches and 6 feet straight across between the tips. Although 

 not so numerous as formerly, yet there are vast herds of 

 Bubali roaming about the dooars and churs (islands in Assam). 

 Archie Campbell, for years in the Assam Commission, had 

 the elephant he was riding knocked down by a bull, .and who 

 followed him up by scent, as a hound might have done. Just 

 in time he came to a small tree, and climbed it as the enemy 

 bore down upon him. 



Once near Tseben, a favourite site of mine for snipe, I found 

 an albino cow, belonging to a villager, that had immensely 

 long horns; when she threw back her head each horn lay 

 alongside the dorsal ridge nearly to her croup. I offered the 

 maximum price in those days for a cow, namely, 50 rupees, 

 but her owner, seeing how anxious I was to possess her, raised 

 her price to 200 rupees, which I declined to give. I tried 

 to get her horns measured, but although quiet enough with 

 the natives generally, yet when she felt them handling her 

 horns she became restive, and so the measurements were 

 never taken. 



So alike are the tame and wild buffaloes, that once we came 

 across a herd far, far away from any village. I did not like 

 their looks and declined to fire, but my comrade killed two, 

 and had to pay 50 rupees each. They had been let loose 

 for breeding purposes. Huge and strong as are these beasts, 

 the cowardly Assamese catch them in nets, the string of the 

 meshes being of hemp twisted of the size of one's little finger. 

 The adult bulls they kill, and also full-grown cows, selling the 



