xSo THE BUFFALO, &c. 



tlicfe animals Is fo great *, that it has degene- 

 rated into fuperftition, which is the ultimate 

 ilep of blind veneration. The ox, being the 

 moft ufeful animal, has appeared to them to 

 merit tlie greateft reverence. This venerable 

 object they have converted into an idol, a kind 

 of beneficent and powerful divinity ; for every 

 thing we refpect muft be great, and have the 

 power of doing much good, or much evil. 



Thefe bunched oxen vary perhaps more than 

 ours in the colour of the hair and the figure 

 of their horns. The molt, beautiful are white, 

 like thofe of Lombardy t« Some of them 

 have no horns ; the horns of others are very 

 high, and in others they are almoft pendulous. 

 It even appears that this fir ft race of bifons, or 

 bunched oxen, Iliould be divided into two fe- 

 condary races, the one large, and the other 

 fmall, which lair, comprehends the zebu. Both 



are 



* The Queen is attended with the ladies of faftuon, and 

 the pavement or roads through which fhe paiTes are ftrewed 

 with the dung of the cow* formerly mentioned. Thefe peo- 

 ple have fuch a veneration for their cows, that they are al- 

 lowed to enter the King's palace, and are never (lopped on 

 their paffage, wherever they choofe to go. The King and all 

 the nobles give place to thefe cows, as well as to the bulls and 

 oxen, with every poffible mark of refpecl and veneration ; 

 Voyage de Francois Pyrard, torn. I. p. 449. 



f All the cattle of Italy are gray or white ; Voyage de 



Burnett part. 2. p. 12. The oxen of India,' and efepecially 



thofe of Guzarat and of Cambaya, are generally white, like 

 thofe of Milan ; Graffe's travels, p. 253. 



