er
produce is also very small compared with the dairies of Europe. At
Batavia, likewise, we are told that their cows are small and lean, from
the scantiness of good pasture, and do not give more than about an
English quart of milk, sixteen of which are required to make a pound of
butter.

The inland people, where the country is tolerably practicable, avail
themselves of the strength of this animal to draw timber felled in the
woods: the Malays and other people on the coast train them to the draft,
and in many places to the plough. Though apparently of a dull, obstinate,
capricious nature, they acquire from habit a surprising docility, and are
taught to lift the shafts of the cart with their horns, and to place the
yoke, which is a curved piece of wood attached to the shafts, across
their necks; needing no further harness than a breast-band, and a string
that is made to pass through the cartilage of the nostrils. They are
also, for the service of Europeans, trained to carry burdens suspended
from each side of a packsaddle, in roads, or rather paths, where
carriages cannot be employed. It is extremely slow, but steady in its
work. The labour it performs, however, falls short of what might be
expected from its size and apparent strength, any extraordinary fatigue,
particularly during the heat of the day, being sufficient to put a period
to its life, which is at all times precarious. The owners frequently
experience the loss of large herds, in a short space of time, by an
epidemic distemper, called bandung (obstruction), that seizes them
suddenly, swells their bodies, and occasions, as it is said, the serum of
the blood to distil through the tubes of the hairs.

The luxury of the buffalo consists in rolling itself in a muddy pool,
which it forms, in any spot, for its convenience, during the rainy
season. This it enjoys in a high degree, dexterously throwing with its
horn the water and slime, when not of a sufficient depth to cover it,
over its back and sides. Their blood is perhaps of a hot temperature,
which may render this indulgence, found to be quite necessary to their
health, so desirable to their feelings; and the mud, at the same time,
forming a crust upon their bodies, preserves them from the attack of
insects, which otherwise prove very troublesome. Their owners light fires
for them in the evening, in order that the smoke may have the same
effect, and they have the instinctive sagacity to lay themselves down to
l