THE INDIAN OX OR ZEBU. 
213 
the vicinity of Surat. The variety vre have figured 
is of large size, tlie horns small, and the ears large 
and rather pendulous. 
In India, where they have not been consecrated, 
they are used for burden and tillage, and are mild- 
tempered and gentle. They are also used occasion- 
ally for the saddle and in harness, and travel with 
considerable speed, from twenty to thirty miles being 
accomplished in a day. Among the Hindoo sects 
they are consecrated, and as with many other of the 
animals employed in the mythology of that remai'k- 
able people, are fed and pampered and allowed to 
Use their freedom anywhere with impunity, severe 
penalties being inflicted on any one who will molest 
them, even when destroying their ^growing crops or 
other property. 
“ The Brahminy, or sacred bull of the Hindoos, 
rambles about the country without interruption ; he 
is caressed and pampered by the people, to feed him 
being deemed a meritorious act of religion. In many 
parts of Bengal, an absurd custom prevails, which 
frequently occasions much damage to the faimers. 
^’hen a rich young man dies, and the ceremony in 
Commemoration of ancestors has been performed, a 
young bull is consecrated, with much solemnity, to 
Siva, and manned to four cows ; he is then turned 
loose, after having been marked ; he may then go 
t^here he pleases, and it is not lawful to beat him, 
even if he be eating a valuable crop, or enter a shop 
oud there devour the grain exposed for sale. The 
