THE GAYAL OR MITHUN. 249 



Bhould be cut thick and grilled when fresh from the animal, with a plenti- 

 ful dusting of black pepper, which process makes them tender. If the 

 animal is allowed to get cold, or the steaks are cut thin, or are over-cooked, 

 they will be as tough as leather. I have eaten steaks from the oldest 

 bulls, cut out and cooked almost before they had given the last quiver, and 

 found them excellent. The marrow-bones are those above the knees and 

 above the hocks ; the shin and shank bones are almost solid. 



In Mysore, except the two lowest castes, Holoyas and Madigas, who 

 eat any dead cattle, and the Kurrabas of Kakenkot^, no Hindoos will eat 

 the flesh of the bison ; this is because it is, in their opinion, the same as 

 their sacred cow. As Mussulmans require the throat to be cut before 

 it is dead, it is seldom bison-beef appears in their menu, as few people 

 care to approach a dying bison whilst any doubts remain regarding its 

 demise. 



The bison has never been domesticated in Southern India, though I 

 believe it could be under the same circumstances under which it, or its 

 very near relative the gayal or mithun {Gavceus frontalis), is kept in 

 captivity in the countries to the east of the Brahmapootra, Assam, Tip- 

 perah, Chittagong hills, &c. But it is certain that it could never be kept 

 out of its natural wilds, and its domestication would not thus be of much 

 practical value. A strain might possibly be obtained by crossing it with 

 domestic cattle, and by toning down the first result with a further infu- 

 sion of domestic blood, animals might be produced which would live in the 

 plains, and the bison's enormous strength would be a gain in its progeny. 

 But to a people like the ordinary natives of India such considerations or 

 experiments are of no interest. 



No bison-calf has ever, I believe, reached England alive ; and though 

 they have been kept for a year or so in India, they have not survived much 

 longer away from their natural wilds. The domesticated individuals which 

 I saw in the Chittagong hill-tracts were in their native forests ; they merely 

 returned to the villages at nightfall, where they were fed with a little salt, 

 the only tie between them and their owners. They were not secured or 

 housed, but lay about on the village green, and at dawn they were off again 

 to the jungles. Any that were required for milking were detained a few 

 minutes, and then followed their companions. They had no attendants in 

 the jungles. The billmen informed me that they kept them chiefly for the 

 sake of killing one occasionally for meat at feasts. These animals were 

 thus feral to all intents and purposes, except in their having no dread of 

 man. They seemed very peaceful in disposition. I was assured by the 

 hUlmeu that they would not live more than a few months in the plains of 



