340 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 3, 
of central India and the Deccan, are considerably larger than the 
Bengali bullocks, and are more universally in good condition than is 
the case perhaps in any other country. The carts are small, and the 
cattle share with their masters in the exemption from everything 
like overwork. But probably the main reason of their good con¬ 
dition is, that there is no demand for milk ; the calves are robbed of 
no part of their natural food,”* I was much struck with the game 
appearance of these animals, which are as superior to the ordinary 
Bengali bullock as are the admirable Shan ponies to the wretched 
tats of Bengal (seen also at Akyab). They are longer in the body 
and shorter in the limbs than ordinary Indian cattle, more as in the 
humpless B. taurus ; invariably in fine condition (as Col. Yule 
remarks), and particularly active and graceful in their movements, 
which are those of a wild animal, especially the cattle seen about the 
villages of the interior; and they are of Shan origin, so far as 
Burma is concerned, as I am assured. 
The Buffalo does not appear to be indigenous either in the Indo- 
Chinese or Malayan countries, though many have reverted to a state 
of wildness, as elsewhere. At Tavoy I first observed the superb 
domestic Buffaloes of Burma, which differ in no respect from the 
wild animal of Bengal: they are large and plump in condition, with 
well developed horns. Tavoy is famous for its Buffalo fights ; and 
I was shewn the ‘ champion’ Buffalo, which had vanquished every 
competitor: he is a splendid creature of his kind, and so gentle that 
children fondled him. Near Tavoy I saw a large herd of albino 
Buffaloes, with about half a dozen of a buff colour intermingled. 
Stalking amidst this herd were about a dozen of Tantalus leucoce- 
piialus, and numerous white Egrets (Herodias intermedia of my 
Catalogue). The leprous-looking albino breed of Buffaloes is common 
* Col. Yule adds, in a note,—“ I believe the aversion to milk, as an article of 
food, obtains among nearly all the Indo-Chinese and Malay races, including 
specifically the Khasias of our eastern frontier, the Garos and Xagas, the Bur¬ 
mese, the Sumatran races, and the Javanese. In China itself, it is also prevalent, 
as Sir John Bowring mentioned it in a letter on the population of China, pub¬ 
lished in the Journal of the Statistical Society. The use of milk has, however, 
been adopted at the Burmese Court, and the supply is furnished by some families 
of Kattra Brahmans, who maintain a number of cows near the capital. But it 
is a foreign usage.” (Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855, p. 2. 
Vide also J. A. S. XXIX, 286, 302, 378). Of the natives of Kandy, likewise, Sir 
J. E. Tennent remarks, that—“ Milk they never use, the calves enjoying it un¬ 
stinted ; and the prejudice is universal, that the cows would die were it other¬ 
wise disposed of.” (Ceylon, II, 452. 5 th edition.) 
