Chap. L] 
OXEN. 
51 
eruptive appearances, seem to indicate that the disease 
is a feverish influenza, attributable to neglect and ex- 
posure in a moist and variable climate ; and that its 
prevention might be hoped for, and the cattle pre- 
served, by the simple expedient of more humane and 
considerate treatment, especially by affording them 
cover at night. 
During my residence in Ceylon an incident occurred 
at Neuera-ellia, which invested one of these pretty 
animals with an heroic interest. A little cow, belong- 
ing to an English gentleman, was housed, together with 
her calf, near the dwelling of her owner, and being 
aroused during the night by her furious bellowing, the 
servants, on hastening to the stall, found her goring a 
leopard, which had stolen in to attack the calf. She 
had got it into a corner, and whilst lowing incessantly 
to call for help, she continued to pound it with her 
horns. The wild animal, apparently stupified by her 
unexpected violence, was detained by her till despatched 
by a bullet. 
The number of bullock-carts encountered between 
Colombo and Kandy, laden with coffee from the interiorj 
or carrying up rice and stores for the supply of the 
plantations in the hill-country, is quite surprising. The 
oxen thus employed on this single road, about seventy 
miles long, are estimated at upwards of twenty thou- 
sand. The bandy to which they are yoked is a barbar- 
ous two-wheeled waggon, with a covering of plaited 
coco-nut leaves, in which a pair of strong bullocks will 
draw from five to ten hundred weight, according to the 
nature of the country; and with this load on a level 
they will perform a journey of twenty miles a day. 
A few of the large humped cattle of India are an- 
E 2 
