used as fuel for
dressing their victuals; for this purpose the women collect it, and bake
it into cakes, which are placed in a position where they soon become dry
and fit for use. The sacred character of the cow probably gives this
fuel a preference to every other in the imagination of a Hindoo, for it
is used in Calcutta, where wood is in abundance.

On certain occasions it is customary for the Hindoos to consecrate a
bull as an offering to their deities; particular ceremonies are then
performed, and a mark is impressed upon the animal, expressive of his
future condition to all the inhabitants. No consideration will induce
the pious Bengalee to hurt or even control one of these consecrated
animals. You may see them every day roaming at large through the streets
of Calcutta, and tasting rice, grain, or flour in the Bazar, according
to their pleasure. The utmost a native will do, when he observes the
animal doing too much honour to his goods, is to urge him, by the
gentlest hints, to taste of the vegetables or grain of his neighbour's
stall. (_Tennant's 'Indian Recreations.'_)

One of the doctrines of the Brahmins is to believe that kine have in
them somewhat of sacred and divine; that happy is the man who can be
sprinkled over with the ashes of a cow, burnt by the hand of a Brahmin;
but thrice happy is he who, in dying, lays hold of a cow's tail and
expires with it between his hands; for thus assisted, the soul departs
out of the body purified, and sometimes returns into the body of a cow.
That such a favour, notwithstanding, is not conferred but on heroic
souls, who contemn life, and die generously, either by casting
themselves headlong from a precipice, or leaping into a kindled pile, or
throwing themselves under the holy chariot wheels, to be crushed to
death by the Pagods, when they are carried in triumph about the
town.--(_Life of St. Francis Xavier, translated by Dryden, 1688._)

AFRICAN AND OTHER VARIETIES.

In Shaw's Zoology, the following species or varieties are noticed:--

LOOSE-HORNED OX.

This is said to be found in Abyssinia and in Madagascar, and is
distinguished by pendulous ears, and horns _attached only to the skin,
so as to hang down on each side_!

THE BOURY.

Of the size of a camel, and of a snowy whiteness, with a protuberance on
the back, is a native of Madagascar and some other islands.

THE TINIAN OX.

Of a white colour, with black ears. Inhabits the island of Tinian.

Bew