The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-17


 Oliver Ready In his Sport in South ern China" says;
 Tn central and southern China these descendants of the fierce herds of the Indian jungles are the most striking feature in rural life. Their bodies of enormous bulk, black and devoid of hair, their heavy heads and enormous semi-clrcular horns are alarming to look at, but in reality the Chinaman's guffalo is most docile. In summer, when not al work, they lie for hours sunk up to their nostrils in the canals and streams It is rather pretty to see one of these unwieldy, dangerous looking brutes being led quietly along, by means of a thin string attached to it's nose, by wee native girl, who when tired of walking, stops the ami mal, draws it's head down by the string, places her tiny foot on the mas sive horn, and is slowly raised from the ground by the buffalo and lifted gently to the level of it's back, which is so broad that she can kneel and play on it while her charge is grazing. These buffaloes are chiefly employed in the cultivation of rice, and as their flesh is rarely eaten by the Chinese they are chiefly employed in the culti- walton of rice, and as their flesh is rarely eaten by the Chinese they usu- ally die of old age. On one occasion I saw a large family of natives return ing mournfully to their village from a neighborng meadow, and on making inquiry was told that they had been to bury their water buffalo, which had just died after a faithful service of more than twenty years"
 I think there can be very little doubt that the Indian buffaloes were brought to Egypt by sea from the ports of low CT India by the Arab traders, possibly as passengers with rich Indian mer- chants If Hindu rajah comes over to England now he often insists on having a COW buffalo on board to pro- vide him with milk, buffalo milk being greatly preferred to that of cows. The Arabs, ani possibly before them Hin du sea traders, had from most ancient days-certalnly from the time of Solo mona great trade between Egypt and India by sea. It was fourishing in the days of the Tudors, When Vasco da Gama discovered that he had rounded the Cape of Good Hope he had an in- terview with a friendly sheik, probably at Mombasa, who told him that he was quite on the right track and that if he sailed straight away eastward he would hit the coast of India, Also that If he sailed at once he would get there before the "Moorlsh," i. e., Arab fleet, and have the market for spice to him sell He took the advice, and thugh he had some difficulty in getting a full cargo, he did so at last and left when the Arab fleet came. How he got back to Lisbon with his cloves and nutmegs, and how it was instantly recognized that the Indian trade which the Turks had stopped was open again and how the prices of spices at once fell to the great joy or northern Europe, which had been suffering from scurpy because of the overuse of salt for preserving winter provisions, belongs to another story. But the 'tMoorish fleet" ex- plains how the buffaloes got to Africa. Another Arab fleet traded for ages from southern India to the Persian Calf. There is no doubt that the crews took the useful buffalo to the swamps of the lower Euphrates and Tgris, whence they spread to the upper wa l ters and were taken across the regular old trade route via Damascus to the headwaters of the Jordan In this most obscure place they have remained until the present time They could not get any further because the Jordan l ends in the Dead Sea- and beyond are wide and burning deserts and on the 1 other side at no great distance the sea. But the buffaoes were taken into this odd cul de sac fairly early They were seen at Hodeida, on the upper Jordan by a Saxon saint In the eighth centu- Try. In 1867 "Roy" Macgregor, go- noe found them at exactly the same place, floating half submerged, and had to guide his craft among their heads | and horns.
 The next excursion of the buffaloes was to Europe. They are now found in tens of thousands in southern Italy especially in the malarial swamps of | the Pontine marshes, but also as a general beast of draught in the south ern and southeastern peninsulas. A, sculptor in Rome has the big blocks of marble drawn to his studio by buffa- loes. Tn Hungary, mainly in the south along the great tubrltarles of the Dan- ube; in south Russia and in the Cri- mea, whence they have been taken to the Causasus, they are common They are also in general use In the valley of the Guadalquivir in Spain.
 It is quite clear that the buffaloes must have been taken to Italy by sea, for it is not in the least likely that they were brought through the Turk ish peninsula and around the head of the .Adriatic, Who it was precisely who brought them there is not known, but as they are not mentioned at all in what are called "the classics" though