THE BUFFALO. 



287 



tlie interior of primeval forests. They never ascend the mountains, and adhere, like the rhinoceros, to 

 the most swampy sites of the district they inhabit. There is no animal upon which ages of domes 

 ticity have made so small an impression as the buffalo, the tame being still most clearly referrible to the 

 wild ones at present frequenting all the great swampy jungles of India. In this wilderness, as in the 

 cow-house, there is a marked distinction between the long (ntaeroCNttt) and curved-horned (ejrirocerua) 

 buffaloes." 



Not many years ago, a boy, eight years of age, in the Dessa Gilang, was herding some buffaloes in 

 a wood, not far from the village, when he was unexpectedly seized and dragged away by a tiger. At the 

 cries of anguish uttered by the boy two buffaloes immediately came running up, one of which attacked 

 the tiger with such success that he released the boy and seized the buffalo above the knee-joint ; on 



Till: HERD IX THE FKAI1UKS. 



which a short fight ensued between the buffalo and tiger, which ended in. the flight of the latter. In 

 the meantime, the other buffalo had placed himself above the body of the boy, which was lying on the 

 ground, in such a way as to cover it entirely, and to protect it against a second attack of the tiger. 

 The life of the boy, although he was severely wounded by the tiger on the right thigh bone, was not 

 despaired of when the account of this extraordinary conflict was given. The peculiar attachment 

 which the two buffaloes showed to the boy is explained by the circumstance, that generally the young 

 natives who take charge of the pasturage of these animals bestow great attention on one or more of 

 the flock, that they commonly remain in their vicinity, and sometimes pass a large portion of the day 

 on their backs. Buffaloes, however, often suffer from the attacks of the tiger and the jaguar. 



"The arna," says Mr. Hodgson, "produces one or two young in summer. It lives in large 

 herds, but, in the season of rutting, the males lead off' and appropriate several females, with which 



