OTHER DOMESTICATED CATTLE 189 
he may not kill it at a funeral, and must allow it to 
die a natural death. 
" Even the slaughter of animals at the funeral 
ceremonies appears to be managed so as to interfere 
as little as possible with the profits obtained from the 
sale of the milk. I think there is little doubt that 
it is an established custom to kill old and barren 
buffaloes on these occasions. An animal is not sent 
to the next world till its owner has got the utmost 
out of it in this." 
All these sacrosanct observances connected with 
Toda buffaloes bear, it will be obvious, a close 
relationship to the veneration with which all kinds 
of horned cattle are regarded by the Hindus — a 
veneration so intense that under the old regime cow- 
slaughter was esteemed at least as great a crime as 
murder. 
As stated on p. 183, Italian buffaloes are kept in the 
viarevimas of Tuscany, the lowlands at the mouth of 
the Tiber, the Pontine marshes, the swamps of Pesto, 
a'nd the Basilicata. According to Professor G. Magini ^ 
there w^ere formerly something like 65,000 buffaloes 
kept in the southern provinces of Italy, out of which 
some 30,000 belonged to Pesto alone. Formerly Lazio 
had also about 30,000, although in 1881 there were only 
2200; in 1908 the number had risen to 3700, and at 
the present time there is believed to be a further slight 
increase. In March 191 1 the Pontine marshes con- 
tained 550; and in the previous year 32 were sent 
from this district to Naples, but Rome took none. 
From another district with 7000 head, 1000 were sent 
to Rome and Naples in 19 10. Finally, it appears that 
during the last ten years there were 11,015 buffaloes 
^ Atti della Reak Accadeniia dei Lined, ser. 5, vol. xx. p. 40, 191 1. 
