S4'2 HISTORY or 



On the other hand, if we compare the buffalo with our cona. 

 mon cow, no two animals can be more nearly alike, either 

 in their form or their nature ; both equally submissive to 

 tJie yoke, both often living under the same roof, and employed 



two of which are sometimes not developed ; the tail is long and slender; the 

 back rather straight ; the hide black, more or less covered with hair of au 

 ashy or blackish colour ; sometimes it is brown or white. They avoid hills, 

 preferring coarse plants of the forest and such as grovv in swampy regions, 

 to those of open plains ; they love to wallow and lie for hours sunk deep in 

 water ; they swim well, or rather float on the surface, and consequently pass 

 the broadest rivers without hesitation ; their gait is heavy, and unwieldy 

 and run almost always with the nose horizontal, being principally guided by 

 their sense of smelling ; but this altitude prevents their seeing beneath thera 

 and conceals their horns. In tiieir combats, they usually strike or but witli 

 the forehead, endeavour to lift the opponent on their horns, and when thrown 

 to crush him with their knees : they trample on the body, and their vindic- 

 tive fury is so lasting, that they will return again and again to glut their 

 vengeance upon the same inanimate corpse ; they herd together in small 

 flocks, or live in pairs, but are never strictly gregarious in a wild state, they 

 have a tenacious memory, and they low in a deep tone. The females bear 

 calves two years following, but remain sterile during the third; gestation is 

 said to last twelve months, but it appears not to exceed ten, they pro- 

 pagate at four and a half years old, and discontinue after twelve. Partu- 

 rition (in Europe) takes place in the spring, and never exceeds one calf. Dr 

 Pallas asserts that they breed with domestic cattle, but that the produce usn. 

 ally dies : their life may extend to twenty.five years. 



Although in a domestic state they are not remarkable for docility or at- 

 tachment to their keepers, yet a feeling of this kind, mixed no doubt with 

 instinctive antipathy, is exemplified in an anecdote related by Mr D. Johnson. 

 "Two biparies, or carriers of grain and merchandise on the backs of bullocks 

 were driving a loaded string of these animals from Palamow to Chitrah : 

 when they were come within a few miles of the latter place, a tiger seized 

 on the man in the rear, which was seen by a guallah (herdsman), as he was 

 watching his buffaloes grazing : he boldly ran up to the man's assistance, and 

 cut the tiger very severely with his sword ; upon which he dropped the biparie, 

 and seized the herdsman. The buii'aloes observing it, attacked the tiger, 

 and rescued the herdsman ; they tossed him about from one to the other 

 and, to the best of ray recollection, killed liim. Both the wounded men were 

 brought to me ; the biparie recovered, and the herdsman died." This anec- 

 dote reveals, if not attachment, great antipathy and courage ; and it is well 

 known that neither the tiger or the lion are inclined to prey upon the buf. 

 falo, whose vengeance is probably kept alive by occasional depredations upon 

 their young, and Indian herdsmen do not scruple to pass the night in the 

 most dangerous jungle, seated upon the back of some one favourite aniinaL 



Their extreme hostility to red colours is often remarked in India : the 

 fame antipathy is observed at the Cape and in Europe. A general ollicer, 

 now living, relates, that while a young man he was employed in surveyiog 

 in Hungary, and happening to use a small plane table, the back of which 

 was covered with red morocco : as he walked from one station to anutlier. 



