Xll 
THE OX. 
HISTORY. 
The Ox contributes to human support by other means than his strength employed in labour, or his body rendered to us when 
dead. The female yields her milk in quantity not only sufficient to rear her own offspring, but to afford a salutary food to her 
protectors. She gives it with a facility and in an abundance unknown in the case of any other animal. While most of the mam¬ 
malia will refuse to yield their milk unless their young be suffered to partake of it, the Cow gives it beyond the period of maternal 
solicitude as freely as when her young is before her eyes. She is every where docile, patient, and gentle. She remains quiescent 
with the herd, or shares with humbleness her portion of the cot which is their common shelter. She obeys the commands of 
her keeper, and recognises the milkmaid’s voice. ' r • 
While the female is thus gentle and humble, the bull retains much of the natural fierceness of his race. He scarcely fears 
an enemy, and is easily excited to rage. He can be reduced to subjection by the effects of discipline, and made to assist in all the 
labours of the field; but yet his passions are often suddenly excited, and his great strength may be dangerously exerted. But, by 
depriving him of his virile powers, all the native ferocity of his race disappears, and he becomes as submissive as the heifer. It is 
then that he gives us the benefit of his vast strength, exempt from the danger of his natural temperament, bending his neck to 
patient toil, and grazing with content in his allotted pastures. 
We are apt to associate with the character of this useful creature ideas of apathy, and want of intelligence. But the brain 
of the Ox is larger than that of the Horse, and though he is far inferior to that noble creature in spirit and grace, it is questionable 
if he falls short of him in sagacity. The bull has been known to charge himself with the guardianship of the herd, to keep them 
from wandering into forbidden pastures, and to protect from intruders their allotted boundaries. When beasts of prey approach 
he is at the post of danger, marshalling the herd into a phalanx, and placing the young in the centre and rear. 
When the season of sexual desire arrives, fierce combats ensue between the rival bulls. Their eyes sparkle with rage, and they 
rush upon one another with desperate force. But their fury is given not for the purpose of mutual destruction, but for an end 
connected with the preservation of the health and vigour of the race. It is necessary that the strongest males should propagate 
the race to preserve it from feebleness and degeneracy. They contend with the powerful strength and arms with which Nature 
has supplied them, for the mastery of the herd. But they do not seek to shed each other’s hood. The vanquished yield to the 
law of superior strength, and the most powerful assumes his fitting place. 
In the vast plains of South America, where the emancipated herds have regained a certain degree of natural liberty, travellers 
have observed that, when a bullock has been slain for food, the herd surround the murderers of their comrade, and express by loud 
cries and groans their sympathy and sorrow, while tears have seemed to roll from their eyes. They cannot know why the blood 
of their fellow should be shed, and his body mangled ; but they show that Nature has not rendered them insensible to the suffeiings 
of their comrades. 
Wlien the Ox is merely a beast to be fattened and destroyed,—when he neither shares the toils of his mastei, nor paiticipates 
in his regards,—when his instincts have been blunted, without instruction having been supplied,—he does indeed seem to become 
the stupid and insensible brute which we hold him to be. What need has he of intelligence in order that he may be tied to the 
stall, or driven to his pasture, and back again to the slaughter-house ? Nature is sparing of her mental gifts, giving to each creature 
that which fits it for its condition. What, to the victim of our gluttony and avarice, destined to unnatural repletion at the stall 
that he may be fattened in the shortest time, and doomed to die a cruel death, would avail the gifts of consciousness of danger, 
docility, and the knowledge of what is good for him ? His brief life would be the more embittered, and the bounties of Nature 
would be a cruel present. But let us look at those wild Oxen which have never been reduced to slavery, as the Uri of our 
parks, or the European Oxen, which, in the fertile wilderness of the New World, have regained their liberty, and we shall 
find a creature altogether different from the stupid and insensible slave whom we have degraded. We shall find him wary of 
danger, resolute in his defence against the beasts of prey, agile and swift, and calling into action all his instincts for Ins own 
defence, and braving death that he may protect the feeble of his herd. Nay let us regard him, even in his enslaved condition, but 
when human reason has aided him with a ray of light, and we shall see him become almost as docile as a dog, guarding the 
property of his master, nay, so far departing from his natural habits, as to mingle for his mastei s sake in scenes of strife and 
bloodshed. 
In the vast regions of Southern Africa, peopled by tribes of warriors and herdsmen, cattle abound and multiply, and form the 
wealth of the little communities. The simple and patient Hottentots, while yet they had a country which they could call then 
own, were rich in this kind of possession; and even yet, after generations of servitude, retain the habits and feelings of tlieir nomadic 
state. The tending of cattle is still the favourite employment of their lives : they know the individuals of the herd, and address 
them by their names. They had their backleys, or trained oxen, of which each kraal had at least six . they were selected from those 
wlii cli seemed the most capable of receiving instruction, and when one died or became unserviceable from age, anothei was chosen 
