CHAPTER VIII 
OTHER DOMESTICATED CATTLE 
AS stated in the preceding chapter, all the 
domesticated cattle of Africa appear to have 
been derived from south-western Asia, whence they 
were imported into Egypt some time previous — 
perhaps ages before — to 3500 B.C. From Egypt they 
probably spread gradually westwards and southwards 
till they reached the southern districts of the African 
continent, where, if the evidence of the above- 
mentioned rock - paintings be trustworthy,^ they 
appear to have arrived at a very early date. This 
lack of indigenous domesticated cattle in Africa 
cannot be accounted for by lack of material on which 
to work, for the small red and other buffaloes of the 
western coast could probably have been domesticated 
— to a greater or less extent, just as easily as the 
buffalo of India. It may rather be attributed to a 
lack of capacity on the part of the natives of Africa, 
south of the Sahara — the Ethiopian Africa of 
naturalists — to subjugate and tame wild animals — a 
characteristic in which they are just the opposite of 
the Malays and several other Asiatic nationalities. 
As a matter of fact, it seems doubtful whether 
Ethiopian Africans ever tamed and domesticated — 
^ Vide supra^ p. i66. 
