ins. Buffalo's milk is not very rich, and the cream, such as it is,
produces a white and tasteless butter, which has generally to be
doctored and coloured before an Englishman will look at it.

The buffalo for the greater part of the year has not much flesh on his
huge skeleton, and is a sorrowful-looking creature with an
expressionless eye and an inky skin, and often with enormous horns
which give him a formidable appearance. But except when buffaloes
fight amongst themselves they are not savage beasts, although their
temper is uncertain, and they are said to be liable to attack an
Englishman in districts where they are not accustomed to the sight.
Generally buffaloes appear to take no interest whatever in life,
except to regard it as a burden too heavy to bear. A whole herd is
sent out to graze under the care of a small boy; they are in
astonishing subjection to his despotic rule.

The Indian donkey is very small, and its foal is a beautiful little
creature; but its life-long sentence of hard labour begins early. It
spends its days carrying great weights of earth, or brick, or stone,
or gravel, in panniers made of coarse sacking, for buildings,
road-making, and the like. They work in droves of a dozen, or twenty,
or more, according to the prosperity of the contractor. When they have
delivered their burden, the men and boys who are in charge each mount
a donkey, the legs of the men almost touching the ground, and the
cavalcade goes for a fresh load, often at full gallop.

It is an understood thing that an Indian donkey finds its own food,
how and where he can, in odd moments during the day, or at night when
he is turned adrift to wander as far as his hobbled legs can take him.
The brief period of plenty, when grass springs up after the rains, is
so brief that it must only make the rest of the year appear the more
blank by way of contrast. Indians are credited with being humane,
because they are unwilling to take life, but there are probably few
people who are so callous concerning the sufferings of the animal
world. The owners of the donkeys have a cruel custom of slitting their
nostrils, because it is supposed to moderate the loudness of their
bray.

[Illustration: MILKING THE BUFFALO.]

Elephants are used much less as beasts of burden than was the case in
days gone by. Some are employed in military service and in the pursuit
of big game, but their chief function is to make an imposing
appearance on grand occasi