192 
THE BOVINE TRIBE, OR OXEN. 
The animals which we have now arrived at, and 
with which zoologists have generally concluded the 
family of the ruminants, arc fully equal to the wool- 
bearing tribes in value and utility. The several species 
and various races of Oxen, in all countries, are most 
important in the economy of the inhabitants. They 
are used for labour, and even assist in the w'ars of 
their masters. Their flesh afibrds a nourishment for 
the body, while their skin, hoofs, and honis, are 
indispensable for the stronger articles of clothing, 
and in the manufacture of many substances in <laily 
use. In some countries they are so much esteemed, 
and their produce of milk and hotter, kc. held in 
so much value, that they are never slaughtered e.x- 
cept on the most extraordinary occasions, and never 
used as an article of common or general food. In 
other countries they are only used for the purposes 
of sacred offerings. In Egypt the bull was long 
considered a sacred animal ; and in the mythology 
of the Hindus the “holy cattle" are cared for, 
and their molestation punished with the severest pe- 
nalties. 
In almost all the countries where oxen are em- 
ployed, and this is over a great part of the known 
