ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 219 
The ox. Our domesticated cattle are of two distinct species : 
Bos taurus, covering all European and American races and 
breeds ; and Bos indicus, the smaller, lighter- limbed, and so- 
called sacred! or humped cattle of India, similar to the Galla 
cattle of Africa. 
Both of these species have been so long domesticated and 
the countries they inhabit are so densely populated that it is 
impossible to identify the original wild stock of either. There 
is, however, no lack of material from which they might have 
sprung, for their wild relatives are numerous and our only diffi- 
culty is in assigning exact relationships. 
These relationships, however, are more easily traced for the 
Indian cattle than for the European and American breeds, 
because the vast and largely inaccessible mountain wildernesses 
of the Himalayan foothills afford a secure retreat and harbor 
for a number of truly wild races of the cattle kind, almost any 
one of which might have been the true progenitor of Bos indicus? 
Perhaps the most notable of these, as it is the largest, is the 
gaur (Sos gaurus), a thoroughly wild and untamed animal 
inhabiting the hills and inaccessible highlands of India, extend- 
ing as far eastward as Burma and the Malay Peninsula, where it 
is known as the sladong. This is a true wild ox of monstrous 
size, standing occasionally as high as eighteen hands, or six feet, 
in exceptional old males. His height is exaggerated by his 
exceedingly high withers, amounting to a hump, were it not that 
the elevation is prolonged into a ridge running well down the 
1 This is evidently another of the many erroneous but popular traditions. I 
am assured by the most reliable Hindus that these cattle are no more sacred 
than are any others; indeed, that they are not, all things considered, so highly 
esteemed as is the buffalo. 
2 These Hindu cattle are familiar to every boy that has attended the shows. 
They are smaller and more slender than our cattle, and their more suitable 
conformation and gentle disposition fit them so excellently for the road that 
they are freely used for purposes of travel in their own country. Ranging from 
a clear white to a dirty cream color, with their curious hump at the shoulders, 
they make a most striking appearance that would distinguish them from the 
common cattle of our own country, even to the most casual observer. 
