DOMESTIC CATTLE. 139 



dragged out by a great muscular effort. Mounted 

 hunters have been overtaken and killed by buf- 

 faloes — African and Indian — owing to this fact. 



The tough material of which the horns of 

 cattle are composed has been applied by man 

 to an almost endless number of purposes. Horns 

 are of course the chief weapons of the ox tribe, 

 and all feral and half-wild cattle are provided 

 with them. Probably those most liberally en- 

 dowed in this respect in the present day are 

 the Bechuana cattle of South Africa. I have 

 seen a pair of horns belonging to an animal of 

 this breed which measured between thirteen 

 and fourteen feet from tip to tip round the 

 curves ! Probably such a monstrous develop- 

 ment as this is due to the eccentric taste of 

 the Bechuana stock - raisers. No species of 

 domestic cattle belonging to civilised people has 

 had its horns specially cultivated ; in fact the 

 reverse has generally been the case. Civilisa- 

 tion has but few uses for the horns of the ox 

 while they are on its head, although it is so 

 ready to turn them to account after his death. 

 A number of breeds of polled or hornless cattle 

 have been developed independently of one an- 

 other, in various parts of the world. These 



