THE COMMON OX. 537 



Devonshire,, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Sussex, the ox 

 nearly supersedes the horse in agricultural employments. The 

 Devonshire oxen are highly prized, not only for their beauty, 

 but for their unrivalled docility and good temper. At the 

 plough they work admirably. The driver and the ploughman 

 while at work, chant together a simple but pleasing succession 

 of sounds resembling the counter-tenor in cathedral music j 

 and the oxen, apparently pleased with the chant, proceed with 

 an agility scarcely to be expected from cattle 5 and the team 

 may be watched a long while without hearing a harsh word, 

 or seeing a whip or goad applied to them. Franzius observes 

 that " the ox is much delighted in company, and cannot endure 

 solitude 3 and there is a kind of natural love (as it were) between 

 oxen that work in the plough together, insomuch that if his 

 fellow be not with him, he looketh about for him, and will low 

 until he cometh to him." At a very early period the threshing 

 of corn was effected simply by oxen treading upon the sheaves 

 (see Dent. xxv. 4)j and subsequently it was performed either 

 by the trampling of horses, the rolling of a cart-wheel, or by 

 wooden threshing instruments. (See Isaiah, xxviii. 27, and 

 Chronicles, xxi. <23.) From Homer we learn that the Greeks 

 threshed their corn by the trampling of oxen (Iliad, xx. line 

 4Q5) j and there is abundant evidence that the ancient Romans, 

 Arabs, and Egyptians practised the same method. The modern 

 Moors and Arabs employ either oxen, horses, or mules to tread 

 out the grain (see Shaw's Travels) 5 but Niebuhr says that the 

 Arabs yoke two oxen, which draw a large stone roller over the 

 sheaves ; as in Egypt and Syria the oxen not only tread it out, 

 but draw a roller or other machine over it (see Nor den's 

 Travels in Egypt and Nubia, and Niebuhr 's Travels). Bishop 

 Heber says, that in India oxen tread out the corn. 



In those parts of Africa where the Hottentots retain an 

 independent life, the keeping and tending of sheep and cattle 

 still form the chief employment of their lives ; and under their 

 management the ox is taught to display an extraordinary degree 

 of docility and courage, on any occasion where either of these 



