248 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



even the young of the dreaded urus in the Hercynian 

 or Calydonian forests ; nor is it easy to conjecture how 

 these ancient herdsmen were able to keep in their pos- 

 session herds of animals naturally fierce, and of which 

 the male descendants are to this day the most dangerous 

 and uncertain of any domesticated animals. The diffi- 

 culty of retaining the reclaimed stock must have been 

 greatly increased because, in the absence of enclosure, 

 which is not universal even in civilised Europe, all 

 grazing animals have to be led out to feed daily, when 

 they have every chance of resuming the wild state. 

 But it is difficult to suppose that our cattle, or those 

 of the East, were first obtained in any other way. 



There exists in the Malay States a small wild ox, 

 the anoa, which is perhaps the survival of one of the 

 wild species from which the smaller Eastern breeds are 

 descended. But it is no evidence that a domestic 

 species is not descended from a wild ancestor if this 

 ancestor is not now existing. We should have known 

 nothing of the wild bull of Europe were it not for the 

 records of books and bones, and should not have had 

 these if the breed, instead of existing down to historic 

 times, had perished some four thousand years earlier, 

 as they may well have done from the plains of India. 



Pigs were probably a European " reclamation." In 

 the tropical East no one wanted them, for they were 

 neither wholesome as flesh nor givers of milk. But in 

 every case, in Europe and Asia, there is practically only 

 one wild pig, except the babirussa, which may have 

 been the origin of some of the Chinese breeds. In any 

 case, the enterprising domesticator of pigs in any form 



