ROMAN IMPORTS OF WHITE CATTLE. 23 



slain him. In these countries, Yarro tells us — and 

 the circumstance is remarkable — there were few of any- 

 colour but white ; and these, too, like the Italian white 

 cattle, were the largest and the best, and must have 

 been of the Urus type. The white cattle of Epirus 

 were better than any others in Italy, as well as Greece, 

 and more suitable for divine rites, on account of the 



PICTURE FROM POMPEII. 



dignity they derived from their majestic size and 

 colour. 



The similarity of colour, and resemblance in other 

 respects, between these ancient races and our own forest 

 breed, both believed to be descended from the same 

 source — the wild Urus — is very remarkable, and bears, 

 it appears to me, most strongly upon the question 

 of the colour of that animal. And as the poet tells 

 us that the eye conveys to the mind a much stronger 

 impression than does the ear, I request the reader to 

 compare the engraving of the oxen of Moldavia of 

 the present day, drawing the basket-wagon of the 



