294 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



already said, was four litres, may, in the opinion of the 

 same authority, be confidently regarded as that of an 

 aurochs. For if it be assumed that its capacity has been 

 somewhat enlarged by shaving away the inner surface, it 

 would seem to accord fairly well in size with large fossil 

 specimens of the bony horn-cores of that animal. For 

 three centuries the Zabern horn was the emblem of an 

 association known as " the brotherhood of the horn." 

 This society was founded in May, 1586, by Bishop John 

 von Manderscheid, who came into possession of the horn 

 as a hunting-trophy, or heirloom, from his ancestors. The 

 meeting-place of the society was the castle of Hoh-Barr, 

 near Zabern. The horn was regarded with great veneration 

 by the members of the confraternity, to which distinguished 

 strangers were occasionally admitted as " honorary members." 

 Like the Strassburg ox-horn, the Zabern aurochs-horn 

 mysteriously disappeared during or soon after the French 

 Revolution. 



With its disappearance vanished apparently the last 

 relic of an aurochs killed within the historic period. It is 

 true that Prof. W. B. Dawkins * has stated that a pair of 

 aurochs-horns were borne in procession on certain occasions 

 in the canton of Uri, Switzerland, so late as about the year 

 1866, but it does not appear that the practice is continued, 

 or that the horns are still in existence. 



In the Middle Ages aurochs-horns were commonly pre- 

 served — although even then as rarities— in churches and 

 castles, where they were generally used as drinking-vessels ; 

 and it is mentioned in the "Commentaries" of Julius Caesar 

 that even in his time such horns, mounted in silver, were 

 employed for the same purpose. In the year 1550, Conrad 

 Gesner mentions that an entire aurochs-skull (apparently 

 * Quart. Journ. Geol Soc, vol. xxii. p. 393. 



