148 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
zoologists, as it is employed by Buffon in the first 
portion of his Histoire Naturelle^ published from 
1749-67. It is likewise used in the abbreviated 
English edition of that work, published in 1821, 
where zebu, or hunched oxen, are erroneously stated 
to be near relatives of bison. " In the whole continent 
of India," it is there written, " the Islands of the South 
Seas ; in all Africa, from Mount Atlas to the Cape of 
Good Hope, we find nothing but hunched oxen ; and 
it even appears that this breed, which has prevailed 
in all the hot countries, has many advantages over 
the others. These hunched oxen, like the bison, of 
which they are the issue, have the hair much softer 
and more glossy than our oxen, who, like the aurochs, 
are furnished with but little hair, which is of a harsh 
nature. These hunched oxen are also swifter, and 
more proper to supply the place of a horse ; at the 
same time, they have a less brutal nature, and are 
not so clumsy and stupid as our oxen ; they are more 
tractable and sensible as to which way you would 
lead them." Later on in the same volume it is stated, 
in reference to the hump, that " This hunch does not 
depend on the conformation of the spine, nor on the 
bones of the shoulder ; it is nothing but an excres- 
cence, a kind of wen, a piece of tender flesh, as 
good to eat as the tongue of an ox. The wens of 
some oxen weigh about 40 or 50 lb. ; others have 
them much smaller; some of these oxen have also 
prodigious horns for their size." 
With the exception of their presumed relationship 
to bison, and some details in regard to distribution, 
this account of humped oxen might almost have been 
written by a modern naturalist. The hump is still a 
favourite dish in India ; and throughout the whole of 
