606 UNGULATA. 



Buffalo is more awkward on land. Its gait is clumsy, and its gallop very 

 heavy and labored. 



The first aspect of these buffaloes, as the traveler sees them on the 

 desolate Roman marshes, is calculated to cause alarm. Their look is 

 defiant and savage, their eyes are full of deceit and viciousness. But in 

 Egypt they are good-tempered, and can be managed by a child. Com- 

 plete indifference to everything except water and fodder is their leading 

 characteristic. They draw the plow or the wagon, they can be led or 

 driven, they will bear a rider or a load. They are easily satisfied, select- 

 ing the driest, hardest, most tasteless plants, and this provender suits 

 them, for they give rich, good milk, from which excellent butter is made. 



The Buffalo, having the swine-like propensity for rolling in the mud, 

 is often very dirty. Very orthodox Mussulmans suspect it of being too 

 near akin to the unclean pig, and, as it charges furiously at the red stand- 

 ard of Mohammed, the Turks consider it an accursed creature. The 

 Egyptians, looking to its usefulness, piously believe that the Almighty 

 will pardon its acts of impiety. The Buffalo seldom bellows, but the 

 cow lows to call up her calf; the sound is an unpleasant one, midway 

 between a grunt and a bellow. 



The flesh of the Buffalo is tough, and is disagreeable to Europeans on 

 account of its musky odor. The hide supplies thick strong leather, and 

 the horns are fashioned into cups. 



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