DOMESTIC CATTLE. 143 



be met, it would have been by a cow which was 

 defending her calf. The bulls whose weapons 

 had been shortened and blunted for political 

 reasons were not losers by the change, while 

 the body politic was so much the gainer, 

 because it seldom lost a valuable member 

 through private duelling. 



It would be a slight both to the genus Bos and 

 to the British people to refrain from alluding to 

 the noble attributes of beef Doubtless, in the 

 first place, the table qualities of the bullock de- 

 pended simply upon chance, since one can hardly 

 imagine that — if we ignore festive reunions with 

 the Carnivora — it could make much difference to 

 an animal per se whether he were pleasant to eat 

 or not. But it is probably more than a happy 

 coincidence that this crowning virtue of the ox 

 (which, as is often the case with virtues, is more 

 discussed after the death of its possessor than 

 during his lifetime) should meet with such an avid 

 response in modern Aryan palates. We must here 

 rather reverse the order which we have hitherto 

 followed in discussing the evolutionary connection 

 between certain qualities in the lower animals 

 and the needs of civilised man. For in this in- 

 stance it is man who has adapted himself to one 



