VI 
THE OX. 
HISTORY. 
In the warmer regions of the East, the Buffalo has been domesticated beyond all memorial of tradition and history. But his 
introduction into Europe did not take place until an era comparatively recent. He was first known to the Greeks, and then only 
by description, on the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. Aristotle correctly describes him as being of a black colour, 
and as having a strong body, and thick horns lying backward : but the Boufiahos of Aristotle, as well as the Bubalus of the early 
Roman writers, was of the Antelope family, and distinct from the modern Buffalo. From the period when the Buffalo of the 
East was first referred to by the great naturalist of Greece, nearly a thousand years elapsed before he was introduced as the beast 
of labour into Europe. It has been supposed that the Huns and other barbarians of the East brought him with them when they 
migrated for settlement and conquest towards the Roman States; in which case he may be supposed to have been first introduced 
into Thrace and other countries of the Danube. W ARNE fried states that Buffaloes appeared in Italy in the year 596 ; and some 
of the earlier Monkish chroniclers refer to them with a sort of horror, as a strange kind of Oxen brought from Pagan lands. 
The Buffalo has been long in use in Egypt, though it does not appear that it was cultivated by the early Egyptians. Some sup¬ 
pose that he was not introduced into Egypt until after the conquests of the Saracens; but it is equally piobable that he was ob¬ 
tained from the countries of Africa where he is found in the state of liberty. The Arabian Mahommedans refuse to eat of the 
flesh of the Buffalo, on account, it may be believed, of his resemblance to the Hog. They have a strange tradition that the Hog 
and the Buffalo were the only animals whom the Prophet was unable to convert to the true faith! 
Of the European countries, Italy is that in which the Buffalo is the most largely used as the beast of laboui and the 
assistant of the husbandman. He there forms the riches of the poor inhabitants, who feed upon his milk and flesh, and use 
him in all the labours of carriage and the fields. He finds a fitting habitation in the pestilential swamps with which this beautiful 
country is defaced. Vast herds of them are seen grazing in the wild and swampy plains of Calabria, in the Pontine Marshes near 
Rome, and in other places along the shores which the deadly malaria renders nearly unfit for human abode. In such cases the 
Buffaloes live almost in the state of nature, under the guidance of armed herdsmen, who acquire by habit a wonderful command 
over them. Often they are brought to Rome to be baited in the public shows by trained combatants, who exhibit surprising feats 
of courage and address. 
The Buffalo owes his general diffusion in the domestic state to his hardiness, to his power of subsisting on coaise food, and to 
his great strength and fitness for labour. It becomes a question, whether it would be expedient to carry him beyond the countries 
in which he is now naturalized, to others more distant, as France, Holland, and England. The question, it is believed, must be 
answered in the negative. The Buffalo is really the creature of the warmer countries, and his superiority over the domestic Ox 
continually diminishes as we arrive at countries where the common grasses become abundant. He is in all cases, indeed, to be 
preferred for physical strength and endurance of labour to the Ox, but his pace is slow, and his action sluggish. In this 
country he cannot in any degree be compared to the Horse for the active labours of the road and farm, while the flesh would be in 
no demand, and the milk yielded by the cow would be too inconsiderable to be of value for the dairy. 
The Bubaline family likewise appears in Africa, and with such modifications of form as the peculiar physical condition of this 
vast continent produces in so many animal species. Although it may be the Asiatic Buffalo which has been domesticated in 
Egypt, and perhaps along the southern shores of the Mediterranean, yet it follows in no degree, that species or vaiieties piopei to 
that continent have not been subdued. Bruce informs us that Buffaloes exist in great numbers in the woods of Abyssinia. Denham 
and Clapperton found them in the kingdom of Bornon, on the Lake Tchad, in the heart of Africa, and thence innumerable 
traces of them appear through all the intermediate countries to the Atlantic. Captain Lyon mentions three kinds of Buffaloes 
which are found in immense numbers in the Kingdom of Fezzan; the first, an animal about the size of an Ass, with laige head 
and horns, a reddish hide, and large bunches of hair hanging from each shoulder to the length of eighteen inches or two feet, and 
of a fierce disposition; the second about the size of a cow, red in colour, slow in its motions, and having large horns ; and the third 
a white Buffalo, lighter in shape, and more active in its motions than the others, and so shy and swift that it can rarely be obtained. 
Unfortunately the gallant traveller gives us no details, and probably merely speaks from common reports. The information 
afforded by other travellers regarding the Buffaloes of the interior is alike defective. We merely learn that these animals abound 
throughout the forests of Northern and Central Africa; but of their distinctive characters, no information satisfactory to the natu¬ 
ralist has yet been afforded. 
There is one African species, however, of which we have authentic accounts, namely, the Cape Buffalo, the Bos Caffei of 
Sparrman, and admitted by that name into the catalogues of naturalists. This formidable animal is found at the Cape, and 
extends to an unknown distance into the interior. He bears a distinct affinity in habits and charactei with the Buffalo of Asia, 
but is yet clearly marked by characters of his own. He is a large animal, being about five feet and a half in height at the 
shoulder, and nine feet long, having short muscular limbs, and a ponderous head. His horns are long, thick, and black, spi eading 
over the whole forehead until the bases nearly touch. The root of these rugged horns, overhanging the red and piercing eyes of 
