I860.] 0/7 the Flat-horned Taurine Cattle of S. F. Asia. 305 



dans un autre passage (liv. II, 1), — " Une chose qui n'appartient qu'au 

 Chanieau, entre tous les quadrupeds, c'est qu'il a une bosse sur le dos." 

 (Trad, deja citee de Camus, p. 59.) Done Aristote ne eonnaissait 

 pas le Zebu." — The frequent representation of the humped bull on 

 Indo-Bactrian coins at once recurs to mind : but I have been favour- 

 ed with the following note respecting the antiquity of the humped 

 bull in India, by our joint-secretary Mr. E. B. Cowell. — " In reply 

 to your query," he remarks, " I find that a humped bull is expressly 

 mentioned in the tenth book of the Rig Veda. This is generally 

 considered to be a later book than the other nine, — but it is certainly 

 much older than the Bactrian kingdom, not later, at least, than 

 B. C. 900 or 1000. The passage occurs in the 10th Manclala, 8th 

 Anuvaka, 2nd Sukta ; — I am sorry to say we have no commentary 

 in the Society's library, and the printed edition has only completed 

 the former half, so that I cannot exactly determine the entire sense 

 of the passage, but part of it is clear enough — that the god of fire 

 is described as rushing along in his course roaring like a humped 

 bull. The words vrishabhah Jcahudmdn (here used) are the common 

 terms, which of course occur frequently enough in the later Sanskrit 

 authors. The comparison of Agni (the god of fire) to a bull occurs 

 very often in the earlier books of the Rig Veda, but I don't remem- 

 ber any mention of the hump." 



It is remarkable that the humped cattle were common enough in 

 ancient Egypt, though unknown in the valley of the lower Nile, or 

 even northward of Abyssinia at the present time. According to Sir 

 J. Gardner Wilkinson, the cattle of the ancient Egyptians " were of 

 different kinds, of which three principal distinctions are most deserv- 

 ing of notice ; the short, the long-horned cattle, and the Indian or 

 humped ox ; and the two last, though no longer natives of Egypt, 

 are common to this day in Abyssinia and Upper Ethiopia." Domestic 

 Planners of the Ancient Egyptians. Ill, 33. For an unmistakeable 

 figure of the humped species, vide p. 19, f. 5 ; though the European 

 type is more commonly represented in Wilkinson's copies, and often 

 the calf frisking about beside its dam, as in 1, 48. Even here the 

 difference of the two species is characteristic ; for the humped cattle, 

 when at play, recurve the tail over the back in a remarkable manner ; 

 instead of its being held straight out, or assuming the Bisontine bend, 



2 s 



