BOOK VI. I. 3-II. 4 



and flat or even sinking slightly, the buttocks round, 

 the legs compact and straight but short rather than 

 long and the knees not ill-shaped, the hoofs large, 

 the tail very long and bristly, the hair all over the 

 body thick and short and of a red or brindle colour 

 and the body very soft to the touch. 



II. Calves of such a strain, you must accustom, How to 

 while they are still young, to allow themselves *™° °^*°' 

 to be handled and fastened to their mangers, 

 so that there may be little trouble and less 

 danger in breaking them in. The general opinion 

 is that bullocks should not be broken in before their 

 third or after their fifth year, since the former age is 

 as yet too tender and the latter too hard. Those 

 which are taken wild from the herd ought to be 

 tamed in the following manner. First of all a 2 

 spacious shed should be got ready, where the trainer 

 may be able to move about easily and from which he 

 can withdraw without danger. There should be no 

 narrow spaces in front of the shed but either open 

 country or a wide road, so that, when the bullocks 

 are driven forth, they may have room to escape and 

 that they may not, in their alarm, become entangled 

 in trees or anything else which gets in their way and 

 hurt themselves. In the shed there should be 3 

 roomy stalls, and overhead horizontal beams should 

 be fixed shaped like yokes, raised seven feet above 

 the ground to which the bullocks can be tied. Then, 

 to inaugurate the training, choose the morning of a 

 day which is free from storms and not the occasion 

 of any religious ceremony and fasten the horns of 

 the bullocks with hempen cords. The nooses with 4 

 which they are cqiught should be wrapped round with 

 woolly skins, so that the tender part of the forehead 



127 



