THE BUFFALO. 399 



foremost pair of horses. Although tlie torses were almost ex- 

 hausted by the labour they had undergone, and one of them, 

 frightened at the unusual company of the buffaloes, offered resist- 

 ance rather than assistance, yet this single pair of robust animals, 

 snorting and blowing a little at first, moved the carriage and 

 dragged it upon the bridge. While thus ploughing with the carriage 

 axle-tree deep, they were themselves nearly up to the chest in mud. 



B could scarcely credit the evidence of his senses. When we 



were about half-way over the bridge, the peasants who had gathered 

 round the carriage to lend a hand or to obtain a present, making 

 a little confusion, and, as usual with them, a great deal of noise, 

 one of the buffaloes took fright and became unmanageable, and 

 thus exposed not only the marshal, carriage, horses, and 

 postillions, but your humble servant, the escort of honour, to the 

 hazard of being drowned in the roaring torrent below, for our new 

 bridge had neither parapets nor any kind of protection at its sides. 

 Having caused the peasants to make a retrograde movement and 

 hold their tongues, we waited the event. The restive buffalo, on 

 finding itself alone with its master or conductor, who then ventured 

 to approach and caress it, immediately became quiet, and, with his 

 companion, dragged the marshal's carriage safely over the bridge. 

 We had then to pass my own carriage, and this was done with equal 

 ease by the same pair of buffaloes. In campaigns I have served 

 in, how many pieces of artillery we were obUged to abandon, might 

 have been saved by means of buffaloes ! " 



These domesticated animals possess one disadvantage, for they 

 inherit the love of water, which is a marked characteristic of the 

 wild race, and as soon as they see a pool or a piece of swampy 

 ground, they will if not prevented in time make straight for it, 

 and yielding to their natural instinct plunge into it or lie down 

 for a roll in the mire, which are not proceedings calculated to 

 improve the goods wherewith they may be laden. 



The buffalo even in a domesticated state is a courageous animal. 



" A number of them together," writes Mr. Sterndale,^ " will not 



hesitate to charge a tiger, for which purpose they are often used to 



drive a wounded tiger out of cover. A herdsman was once seized 



1 " Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon." 



