294 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
already said, was four litres, may, in the opinion of the 
same authority, be confidently regarded as that of an 
aurochs. For if it be assumed that its capacity has been 
somewhat enlarged by shaving away the inner surface, it 
would seem to accord fairly well in size with large fossil 
specimens of the bony horn-cores of that animal. For 
three centuries the Zabern horn was the emblem of an 
association known as “the brotherhood of the horn.” 
This society was founded in May, 1586, by Bishop John 
von Manderscheid, who came into possession of the horn 
as a hunting-trophy, or heirloom, from his ancestors. The 
meeting-place of the society was the castle of Hoh-Barr, 
near Zabern. The horn was regarded with great veneration 
by the members of the confraternity, to which distinguished 
strangers were occasionally admitted as ‘ honorary members.” 
Like the Strassburg ox-horn, the Zabern aurochs-horn 
mysteriously disappeared during or soon after the French 
Revolution. 
With its disappearance vanished apparently the last 
relic of an aurochs killed within the historic period. It is 
true that Prof. W. B. Dawkins* has stated that a pair of 
aurochs-horns were borne in procession on certain occasions 
in the canton of Uri, Switzerland, so late as about the year 
1866, but it does not appear that the practice is continued, 
or that the horns are still in existence. 
In the Middle Ages aurochs-horns were commonly pre- 
served—although even then as rarities—in churches and 
castles, where they were generally used as drinking-vessels ; 
and it is mentioned in the “Commentaries” of Julius Caesar 
that even in his time such horns, mounted in silver, were 
employed for the same purpose. In the year 1550, Conrad 
Gesner-mentions that an entire aurochs-skull (apparently 
* Quart. Journ. Geol Soc., vol. xxii. p. 393. 
