There may also be small oxen without the hunch, which, like the zebu, constitute a particular race; for Careri, in his journey from Ispahan to Schiras, saw two small cows, which had been sent as a present to the king, that did not exceed the size of calves; they were fed entirely upon straw, and yet were very fat.
As to the buffaloes, although they can make but little use of their horns, they are compelled to fight lions and tigers in the Mogul’s country. These animals are numerous in warm and marshy countries, especially near rivers, for water and a moist soil seems to be more necessary to them than a warm climate; there are not any of them therefore in Arabia, where the country is dry. They hunt the wild buffaloes, but with great caution, as they are very dangerous, and when wounded rush at their opponents with great fury.
M. de Querhoënt says, the body of the buffalo, at the Cape of Good Hope, is about the size of our oxen, but his head is larger, and his legs shorter. They generally keep about the edge of the woods; and as he has a bad sight he keeps his head near the ground, and when he observe any disagreeable object near him he makes a sudden dart upon it, making at the same time a most hideous bellowing, and on those occasions it is difficult to escape him; but he is not so much to be feared in the open fields: his hair is commonly red, with a few black spots, and they are often seen together in large flocks.
We have already spoken of this little ox under the article buffalo; but as there has been one brought to the royal menagerie since the impression of that article, we can now speak of it with greater exactness, and give an engraving of it done from life. I have also learned, by making new researches, that this small ox, to which I have given the name of zebu, ([fig. 145.]) is very probably the same animal which is called lant, or dant, in Numidia, and in some other northern provinces of Africa, where it is very common, and that the name dant, which can belong to no other animal but this we are treating of, has been transported from Africa into America, and given to an animal which only resembles this by the size of his body, and who belongs to a different species. This dant of America is the tapir, or the maipouri; and in order that it may not be confounded with the dant of Africa, which is our zebu, we shall give the history of it in this volume.
[THE MUFLON, AND OTHER SHEEP.]