HISTORY. 221 



In the warmer regions of the East, the Buffalo has been 

 domesticated beyond all memorial of tradition and history. 

 But his introduction into Europe did not take place until 

 an era comparatively recent. He was first known to the 

 Greeks, and then only by description, on the conquest of 

 Persia by Alexander the Great. Aristotle correctly describes 

 him as being of a black colour, and as having a strong body, 

 and thick horns lying backward : but the Bou/SaXos of Aristotle, 

 as well as the Bubalus of the early Roman writers, was of 

 the Antelope family, and distinct from the modern Buffalo. 

 From the period when the Buffalo of the East was first re- 

 ferred to by the great naturalist of Greece, nearly a thousand 

 years elapsed before he was introduced as the beast of labour 

 into Europe. It has been supposed that the Huns and other 

 barbarians of the East brought him with them when they 

 migrated for settlement and conquest towards the Roman 

 States ; in which case he may be supposed to have been first 

 introduced into Thrace and other countries of the Danube. 

 Warnefried states that Buffaloes appeared in Italy in the 

 year 596 ; and some of the earlier Monkish chroniclers refer 

 to them with a sort of horror, as a strange kind of Oxen 

 brought from Pagan lands. The Buffalo has been long in 

 use in Egypt, though it does not appear that it was cultivated 

 by the early Egyptians. Some suppose that he was not in- 

 troduced into Egypt until after the conquests of the Saracens. 

 The Arabian Mahommedans refuse to eat of the flesh of the 

 Buffalo, on account, it may be believed, of his resemblance 

 to the Hog. They have a strange tradition that the Hog 

 and the Buffalo were the only animals which the Prophet 

 was unable to convert to the true faith ! 



Of the European countries, Italy is that in which the Buf- 

 falo is the most largely used as the beast of labour and the 

 assistant of the husbandman. He there forms the riches of 

 the poor inhabitants, who feed upon his milk and flesh, and 

 use him in all the labours of carriage and the field. He finds 



