THE BULL. 209

affords another illustration: “A bull had gored so many cattle
that he was lassoed, and his horns blunted at the tips to
prevent further mischief. A few weeks after, a panther (jaguar)
killed a cow; and from the tom condition of the bull’s head
and neck, and the trampled state of the ground, he had
evidently done battle for the cow. He was secured, his wounds
plastered up, his horns made sharp again, and turned out
into the savannah. The wild dogs and vultures having been
kept from the body of the cow during the day, the panther
returned to his feast at night, and a furious engagement took
place between him and the bull; for the former was found
dead close by the cow the next morning, pierced through
and through. The bull returned again and again to him with
fury, and was himself again wounded; but his gashes were
sown up, and he remained so fierce that his horns were
obliged to be re-blunted.”
The Brahmin The Brahmin Bull of India, is a sleek, tame
Bull animal of a different species to the ordinary
working ox. He is protected as sacred and allowed more
liberty than is sometimes either convenient or pleasant, as he
is apt to become obtrusive and his devotees fear to check
or thwart him. Sacred as he is he does not believe in the
eighth commandment and so helps himself without scruple to the
wares of the fruiterer and the gardener’s preserves.

The Ox. The Ox is one of the most useful creatures of
the animal world. It is used as a beast of burden and employed
to draw waggons and to drag the plough in England, and in
a variety of useful labours abroad. “Every part of the Ox
is of value,” says the Rev. J. G. Wood. “We eat his flesh,
we wear shoes soled with his skin, our candles are made
from his fat, our tables are joined with glue made from his
hoofs, his hair is mixed with the mortar of our walls, his
horns are made into combs, knife-handles, drinking-cups, etc.,
etc., his bones are used as a cheap substitute for Ivory, and
the fragments ground and scattered over the fields as manure,

14