Species of Bovine Animals. 



6515 



his tame ones to his parrah or village, without the least exertion of 

 force or compulsion, and so attached do the gayals become to the 

 parrah, that when the Kukis migrate from one place to another they 

 always find it necessary to set fire to the huts they are about to 

 abandon, lest the gayals should return to them from the new grounds, 

 were they left standing. Experience has taught the Kuki the ne- 

 cessity of thus destroying his huts. 



" It is a fact worthy of remark, that the new and full moon are the 

 periods at which the Kukis generally commence their operation of 

 catching the wild gayals, from having observed that at these changes 

 the two sexes are most inclined to associate. The same observation 

 has been often made to me by the elephant catchers." 



The taming of the wild elephant is truly an astonishing feat to be 

 performed by the class of people who engage in it ; and this whole- 

 sale domestication of the gayal is most instructive, and reminds us 

 that the subjugation of almost every domestic animal was achieved, so 

 far as we know, by people in a similar primeval state of existence, 

 where little real transition of mode of life was required on the part of 

 the creatures who were won over to servitude and not forced into sub- 

 jection. Civilized men exterminate, but do not domesticate — have 

 not hitherto done so, at least ; nor is a cultivated country adapted for 

 the kind of procedure detailed. 



On looking over this account, we find that the gayal cow is scarcely 

 described ; but little more need be said than that she is altogether of 

 a slighter build than the bull, with the forehead less broad, and the 

 horus shorter and not so thick. We have borrowed largely from the 

 seventh volume of the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society,' and 

 from the eighth volume of the ' Asiatic Researches ; I compiling a 

 tolerably complete description of the beast under notice, by no means 

 however unassisted by familiar personal observation of the domestic 

 animal. 



The banteng {Bos sondaicus, Miiller ; B. bentinger, Temminck ; 

 B. leucoprymnus, Quoy and Gaimard;* Banteng of Europeans in 

 Java; Sapi leweng, Lembo wono and Sampi halas of Javanese — all 

 names signifying " wild cow f Rompo of Dyaks, in Borneo ; Poimg, 

 P'hain, Tsain or Tsoing of Burmese). After careful comparison of the 



* According to Professor Van der Hoeven, this name is founded on the hybrid 

 race often raised in Java and Bali, a figure of one of which we remember seeing 

 among the Hardwicke drawings in the British Museum. If we mistake not, this 

 mixed race, rather than the true banteng, is known by the appellation of" Bali cattle'* 

 at Singapore. 



