BOS PRIMIGENIUS. 503 



It is remarkable that the two kinds of great wild oxen 

 recorded in the * Niebelungen Lied,' of the twelfth 

 century, as having been slain with other beasts of chase in 

 the great hunt of the Forest of Worms, are mentioned under 

 the same names which they received from the Romans : 



" Dar nach schluch er schiere, einen Wisent und einen Elch, 

 Starcher Ure vier, und einen grimmen Schelch : " 



" After this he straightway slew a Bison and an Elk 

 Of the strong Uri four, and a single fierce Schelch." 



The image of the great Urus in the full vigour of life is 

 powerfully depicted in a later poem, destined, perhaps, 

 to be as immortal as the ' Niebelungen :' 



" Mightiest of all the beasts of chase 



That roam in woody Caledon, 

 Crashing the forest in his race 



The Mountain Bull comes thundering on." 



But the following stanza shows that Scott drew his picture 

 from the Chillingham wild-cattle : 



" Fierce, on the hunter's quiver'd hand 

 He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow ; 

 Spurns, with black hoof arid horn, the sand, 

 And tosses high his mane of snow." 



SCOTT, Ballad qfCadgow Castle, 



Mr. Woods cites the fact of the ~ discovery of the skull 

 and horns of the great Urus in a tumulus of the Wilt- 

 shire Downs, as evidence that a " very large race of genuine 

 taurine oxen originally existed in this country, although 

 most probably entirely destroyed by the aboriginal in- 

 habitants before the invasion of Britain by Caesar, since 

 they are not mentioned as natives of Britain by him." * 



The span of the horn-cores, in the instance cited by Mr. 

 Woods, was thirty-three inches, and the circumference of 

 each at the base fifteen inches and a half. " Many bones 

 * Op. cit. p. 26. 



K K 4 



