286 The Poets' Beasts. 



thousand temples, and arrogate the central dignity in a 

 religion which has two hundred millions of believers. To 

 this day Hindoos devoutly believe in Kamadhuk, the "cow 

 of plenty," which yields in heaven, from her exuberant 

 udders, every gift and blessing which the spirit of the dead 

 can demand. 



Yet, elsewhere, in the West, cattle are called prosaic 

 animals, and it is a common thing for men to speak super- 

 ciliously of the bovine atmosphere of bucolic society. 

 From the supposed stupidity of kine the dulness of all 

 such as have their being among them is arbitrarily inferred. 

 The companionship of the bulky, slow-moving, cud- 

 chewing things is presumed to have a corresponding effect 

 upon the temperaments of those who are much with them. 

 To call a man a bullock is to suggest that he is clumsy- 

 footed and thick-headed, with an inert mind in a heavy 

 body. 



Even the poets are of this way of thinking. They have 

 the same name for the animals and the men that tend 

 them ; they are all " herds " together, and which is the 

 more " simple," the quadruped or the biped, it were hard 

 to decide. But it is quite certain that the poetical "herd" 

 is as nearly an idiot as man could be without positively 

 gibbering, and his "patient charges," if absence of char- 

 acter be significant of defective intelligence, are not much 

 above him. 



" The bound of all liis vanity, to deck 



With one briglit bell a fav'rite heifer's neck." 



Yet the poets make excellent use of their cattle, and the 

 complete calendar of the year might be easily constrtictcd 

 out of the moods of the kine in verse. 



Spring is quiet with "placid beeves" " unworricd in the 

 meads," " the calm ];leasures of the pasturing herds," and 

 "the tranquil tinkle of the heifer's bell." 



