242 THE OX. 



state, retain the habits and instincts proper to them in that 

 condition, and communicate these to their young. Hence 

 the young calves couch themselves on the ground, and 

 tremble when approached ; but these characters disappear 

 in the next generation, when the animals are domesticated : 

 hence the mothers conceal their calves, and return to suckle 

 them at stated times ; but the same thing has been observed in 

 the case of cows of the Scotch mountains, when left in a state 

 of liberty. All the habits of these animals, in short, includ- 

 ing that of goring to death their wounded companions, are 

 those of the wild'state, and disappear when they are reclaimed. 

 Thus we have all the evidence which the question admits 

 of, that no real distinction exists between the Wild Oxen of 

 the parks, and those which have for ages been subjected to 

 domestication in the same country ; and that these Wild 

 Oxen are no other than the Uri of the ancient forests of Eu- 

 rope. That the wild of the Bos Taurus inhabited, in like 

 manner, the woods of Western Asia, may, from analogy, be 

 inferred. The Scriptures speak of Wild Oxen, as distin- 

 guished from those that are tame ; and the Arabian poets 

 abound with allusions to the hunting of the Wild Bull, J)ut 

 do not afford data for determining whether this was the 

 Urus, the Bison, or any other species. 



The Ox has been domesticated from the earliest records 

 of human society, and may be deemed to have been an in- 

 strument, under Providence, for leading men from the savage 

 state. Although endowed with vast physical powers, his 

 instinct leads him to yield up his faculties to the service of 

 man, by assisting him in bearing burdens, and tilling the 

 earth ; and in every age his patient docility has been applied 

 to these ends. The wealth of the first people was their 

 flocks and herds : " And Abram was very rich in cattle, in 

 silver, and in gold; and he went on his journeys from the 

 south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at 

 the beginning, between Bethel and Hai, unto the place of the 



