20 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



victims for altars of the gods ; for the Romans sacrificed 

 white cattle to the celestial, black to the infernal deities, 

 and the former were used also, as in the East, to adorn 

 state' processions and triumphs. Instances of both may 

 be seen in Virgil. iEneas, prior to his descent into 

 Tartarus, was recommended by the Sibyl to sacrifice 

 black cattle to Hecate as an expiatory act — 



"Due nigras pecudes: ea prima piacula sunto." 



And accordingly he sacrificed four black bullocks, a black 

 lamb, and a cow to her, and others of the infernal 

 powers ; while in the " Georgics " Virgil indicates as 

 plainly the value of the celebrated white herds of 

 Clitumnus for sacrifices to the gods, and for the Roman 

 triumphs. 



" Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus 

 "Victima, ssepe, tuo perfuti flumine sacro, 

 Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos." 



Even the bull among the signs of the zodiac is de- 

 scribed by the same poet as of the favoured and honoured 

 colour, " white, with gilded horns. 5 ' 



" Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum 

 Taurus." 



But the great demand caused a scarcity, and Italy 

 was unable to supply with white cattle to the extent 

 required for sacrificial and other purposes, a city so 

 opulent, so all-powerful, and so populous as ancient 

 Rome. Importation had to be resorted to, and the coun- 

 tries to which the Eomans went to obtain these white 

 cattle were Epirus, Thrace, and the neighbourhood of 

 the Black Sea — the native country of the Urus, the very 

 localities in which Herodotus had described the wild 

 bull as so abundant, and where Philip of Macedonia had 



