24 



EARLY USE OF CATTLE 



seem to be meant," and he defines it as " curdled milk " and 

 " cheese." The earliest references to butter and butter making 

 in Greek literature deal with its manufacture and use by the 

 Scythians, and the earliest reference in Koman literature is by 

 Celsus, who lived in the first half of the first century a.d. 



From the various references it seems certain that the Greeks 

 and Komans used butter sparingly, if at all as a food, although 

 the surrounding people in Asia and in Europe used it freely, 

 especially as an ointment. Pliny speaks of it as being used for 



Fig. 7. — A profitless cow made so (probably) by poor treatment. 



anointing and in all passages in which it occurs it is spoken of 

 as something fluid and to be poured out, although, according to 

 Hippocrates, the Scythians made butter by placing milk in a 

 stone jar and shaking it until the fat rose to the top. 



Our word butter comes to us from the Latin " Butyrum " 

 and this in turn came from the Greek " Boutyron," which, 

 according to the New International Encyclopsedia, is from 

 " bous," meaning cow, and " tyros," meaning cheese. From all 

 the foregoing we may safely conclude that a rather soft cheese 



