Citap. XX. OF TRIFLING CHARACTERS. 209 



of colour and enormously long horns. The Mongolians value 

 their yaks for their white tails. And I shall now show that 

 there is hardly any peculiarity in our most useful animals 

 which, from fashion, superstition, or some other motive, has not 

 been valued, and consequently preserved. With respect to cattle, 

 " an early record," according to Youatt, 63 speaks of a hundred 

 " white cows with red ears being demanded as a compensation 

 " by the princes of North and South Wales. If the cattle were 

 " of a dark or black colour, 150 were to be presented." So that 

 colour was attended to in Wales before its subjugation by 

 England. In Central Africa, an ox that beats the ground with 

 its tail is killed ; and in South Africa some of the Damaras will 

 not eat the flesh of a spotted ox. The Kaffirs value an animal 

 with a musical voice ; and " at a sale in British KafFraria the 

 " low of a heifer excited so much admiration that a sharp com- 

 " petition sprung up for her possession, and she realised a 

 " considerable price." 64 With respect to sheep, the Chinese 

 prefer rams without horns ; the Tartars prefer them with 

 spirally wound horns, because the hornless are thought to lose 

 courage. 65 Some of the Damaras will not eat the flesh of horn- 

 less sheep. In regard to horses, at the end of the fifteenth 

 century animals of the colour described as Hart yomme were 

 most valued in France. The Arabs have a proverb, « Never 

 buy a horse with four white feet, for he carries his shroud with 

 him ; " 6 the Arabs also, as we have seen, despise dun-coloured 

 horses. So with dogs, Xenophon and others at an ancient 

 period were prejudiced in favour of certain colours ; and « white 

 or slate-coloured hunting dogs were not esteemed." 67 



Turning to poultry, the old Roman gourmands thought that 

 the liver of a white goose was the most savoury. In Paraguay 

 black-skmned fowls are kept because they are thought to be 

 more productive, and their flesh the most proper for invalids - 

 In Guiana, as I am informed by Sir R. Schomburgk, the 

 aborigines will not eat the flesh or eggs of the fowl, but two 



63 ' Cattle ' p 48 



" Livingstone's ' Travels p 57fi . ^T^* 786 ' t0m - ri P< 57 " 



Anderssonf'Lahe Ngan^lk^'p.^' 6 £"' ^ T'^' X *' ^ 



With respect to the sale in Kaffraria,' <Nat L b vT mT ' gS ' * 



see < Quarterly Review,' I860, p 139 es A " ™ L X ' P ' 103 ' 



<* Memoire sur les Cbinoia' (by the torn U 3 9 ^ Uadrup " des du Para S^y,' 



VOL. II. ' ' P " 



