Cattle. 49 
TI. 
CATTLE. 
‘The noble, patient ox and gentle cow 
Kind usage claim ; and he’s a brute indeed, 
Unworthy of companionship with them, 
Who with neglect or cruelty repays 
The debt he owes their race.—Knoz, 
L—HISTORY 
F the ox tribe (Bovide) there are eight species 
—the ancient bison (Bos urus); the bison or 
/ American buffalo (B. bison); the musk ox (B. 
moschatus); the gayal (B. frontalis); the grunt- 
ing ox (B. grunniens); the buffalo of Southern 
Africa (2B. caffer); the common buffalo (B. bubulus); and the 
common domestic ox (B. taurus). It is with the last only that 
we have to do in the present work. 
The ox has been domesticated and in the service of man 
from the remotest antiquity. The Bible informs us that cattle 
were kept by the early descendants of Adam (Gen. iv. 20). 
That their value has been duly appreciated in all ages and in 
all climates, is shown by authentic history. Both the Hindoos 
and the Egyptians placed the ox among their deities; and no 
quadruped certainly is more worthy to be thus exalted. 
The parent race of the ox is supposed by some to have 
been much larger than any of the present varieties. The urus, 
in his wild state at least, was an enormous and fierce animal, 
and ancient legends have thrown around him an air of mys- 
tery. In almost every part of the continent of Europe and in 
England, skulls, evidently belonging to cattle, have been found 
far-exceeding in size those of the present day ; but these may 
have belonged to exceptional individuals. 
3 
