The zebu, like the bison, is extremely gentle when tamed, and very useful to mankind, both as affording food and serving for a beast of draught or burden. These animals are employed in pairs to draw a two-wheeled vehicle, called gadee, which holds but one person, and is used by the wealthy Hindoos. When destined for this purpose, their horns, when young, are bent so as to grow nearly upright, inclining backwards a little toward the top. They are often covered with rich carpets; adorned with rings and chains of gold and other metal, and their legs and chests painted with various colors. The women of the lower classes, in India, frequently travel on bullocks, which they ride astride upon a very large saddle. The animals have bells hung round their necks, and are guided by means of a cord passed through the nostrils.
“My dear friend, that woman has been talking about you so again! She has been telling the awfullest lies you ever heard; why, she railed away about you for a whole hour!”
“And you heard it all, did you?”
“Yes.”
“Well, after this, just bear in mind that it takes two to make a slander; one to tell it and one to listen to it.”
The Bison, or American Buffalo.
As there has lately been an exhibition of a number of bisons through New England, and as no doubt many of our readers have seen them, we think it will amuse them, particularly, to learn something about the manners, habits and nature of these creatures. We hope, too, that all others who may look into our pages, may find it agreeable to read a description of such extraordinary animals.
The bison is very different from the European buffalo,—the latter having very long, spreading horns. The buffalo is also a more fierce and daring animal. Our bison is as large as the largest ox, and roams in vast herds over the prairies of the west. Sometimes several thousand are seen in a flock, and as they proceed, fighting, lowing, leaping, and tearing the earth with their horns, the noise is terrific. The earth at such a time seems to tremble as if shaken by an earthquake. The bison is not now found east of the Mississippi, though it probably inhabited in former times, the whole country to the shores of the Atlantic. It bears considerable resemblance to the German Aurochs. Its horns are short, and it has a prodigious hump over the shoulders. The head, shoulders, and upper parts are covered with long, brownish, woolly hair. The tail is tufted with black.