BUFFALO.
Bubalus Buffelus, Mum. I Bos bubalus, Briss. Bhains (male), . HIND. Karbo ; Karbou, MALAY. Mhains (female), „ I Moonding, . . SUNDAN.
The buffalo inhabits Tibet, but is domesticated in India, the Indian Archipelago, and southern Europe. It is the only indigenous ruminant of Ceylon. They are frequently albinos, with pink eyes. The finest of the domesticated buffaloes of India are reared in the Hyderabad Dominions, west of Nirmul. Some naturalists are inclined to the opinion that there are two species. They are large, ungainly-looking animals, with great horns ; but a domesticated breed, to the west of Nirmul, are of enormous size, almost like small elephants, and give a great quantity of milk. They are kept as milch kine, but are also employed as beasts of burden and draft ; also to carry sacks on their backs, to plough with, to drag carts.
They have little or no hair, and their hides look like polished leather. They require to be in a moist climate, or to be immersed in water daily. They love to wallow in water or slimy mud, and often roll themselves to get a coating of it. A large male buffalo is more than a match for a tiger. It has large fiat horns, some curved and some long (spirocerus and macrocerus). Its ribs are large, flat, and white. It is the buffalo, buffle, and biiffel of the French and Germans. In the Ham bangtotte country, in Ceylon, the villagers are much annoyed by the wild ones, that mingle with the tame when sent out to the woods to pasture, and it constantly happens that a savage stranger, placing himself at the head of the tame herd, resists the attempts of the owners to drive them homewards at sunset. Being an animal to which
water birds are accustomed, the Singhalese train the buffalo to sport, and, concealed behind the animal, browsing listlessly along, they guide it by ropes attached to its horns, and thus creep undis covered within shot of the flock. In the northern parts of India, they are similarly trained to assist the sportsman in approaching deer. One of these sporting buffaloes sells for a considerable sum. Between 1851 and 1855, Liverpool imported from India, annually, about 30,000 of its hides and 600 tons of horns. The male buffalo is frequently sacrificed by non-Aryan races, some times in considerable numbers ; and only in 1859, the Government of Madras ordered the magistrate of the Krishna Division to forbid the cruel rite of Ammavaru, wherein bullocks are impaled alive to appease the goddess Devi, and avert cholera. On that occasion, in a small village, from twelve to twenty-four bullocks were sacrificed, as also several hundred sheep, and the heads of the sacrificed buffaloes were carried in procession on the heads of men. There are two generally recognised wild species of buffaloes in Africa,— the Cape buffalo (B. caller), and the short-horned buffalo (Bos brachyceros).—Bikmore, Travels; Stat. of C'ommerce ; Tennent's Ceylon.