400 WILD ANIMALS. 



by a man-eater one afternoon a few hundred yards from my tent. 

 His cows fledj but his buffaloes hearing his cries rushed up and 

 saved him. 



" The attachment evinced by these uncouth creatures to their 

 keepers was once strongly brought to my notice in the Mutiny. In 

 beating up the broken forces of a rebel Thakoor, whom we had 

 defeated the previous day, I, with a few troopers, ran some of them 

 to bay in a rocky ravine. Amongst them was a Brahmin who had 

 a buffalo cow. This creature followed her master, who was with 

 us as a prisoner, for the whole day, keeping at a distance from the 

 troops, but within call of her owner's voice. When we made a 

 short halt in the afternoon, the man offered to give us some milk ; 

 she came to his call at once, and we had a grateful draught, the 

 more welcome as we had had nothing to eat since the previous 

 night. The buffalo saved her master's life, for when in the even- 

 ing the prisoners were brought up to court-martial and sentenced 

 to be hanged, extenuating circumstances were urged for our friend 

 with the buffalo, and he was allowed to go, as I could testify 

 he had not been found with arms in his hands ; and I had the 

 greatest pleasure in telling him to be off, and have nothing more 

 to do with rebel Thakoors. Jerdon says the milk of the buffalo 

 is richer than that of the cow. I doubt this. I know that in 

 rearing wild animals buffaloes' milk is better than cows' milk, 

 which is far too rich, and requires plentiful dilution with water." 

 The wild buffalo is known in India by the name of arna. It is 

 so similar to the well-known tame species that a minute descrip- 

 tion of it is almost superfluous. If anything it is somewhat 

 larger and stronger built. The hair, which is rather scanty, is 

 dusky black. The forehead is rounded, and the extremely thick 

 body is supported by stout muscular but rather short limbs. Its 

 extreme length is between ten and thirteen feet from snout to the 

 root of the rather short tail, and its height at the shoulder upwards 

 of six feet. The horns of this buffalo vary very much in size, length, 

 and curve. Some animals are seen with them remarkably long and 

 straight, inclining well back over the neck and shoulders, and 

 others have much shorter ones but curved, and the tips pointing 

 upwards. Sometimes these horns attain a tremendous length. A 



