Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/298

 276 The Veneration of the Cow in India.

Africa.* Thus, Mr. C.W. Hobley informs me, — "The Kikuyu and Kamba of East Africa, Hke most Africans, are attached to their cattle, but do not exhibit such an intense love for their herds as the pastoral Masai. I attribute this to the fact that the Kikuyu at any rate have not been cattle- owners for such a long time as the Masai, Nandi, or Galla. The Kikuyu would fight for their cattle, but would not die en viasse to prevent their capture. The Nilotic Kavirondo live on very intimate terms with their cattle. When going to an inter-tribal fight they drive a herd in front of the war party, and shout out to their opponents that if they are the better men they can try and capture the cattle. The Bantu Kavirondo drive cattle to the burial place of a chief to mourn at his grave, and they assert that the leading bullock always knows his way there." When Dr. Living- stone offered beef to some natives of South Africa, they refused to eat it because "they looked upon cattle as human and living at home like men."^

The cow was regarded as sacred in Egypt, and the cow- goddess, Isis-Hathor, was supposed to be incarnate in an actual calf at Memphis, as Apis was in a bull ; if any one slew one of these animals by malice prepense, he was punished by death ; if the offence was committed unwit- tingly, he was liable to any fine which the priest thought fit to impose.*^ In Babylonia the ox was the representa- tive of Ramman, the god of storm and thunder; Sin was called " the strong bull with great horns," and Athtar in

•*}. G. Frazer, Totemisin and Exogamy, vol. ii., pp. 355, 414; Id., The Magic Art, vol. ii., p. 212 ; Id., Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 247; The /ournal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxxi., p. 206; H. Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak, vol. i., pp. 388 et seq. ; J. Hastings, op. cit., vol. ii., pp. 355 et seq. (E. S. Hartland).

^ Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, p. 462.

® Herodotus, ii., 65; A. Wiedemann, Religio7i of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 64, 143, 187 et seq. ', A. Erman, Life in Aftcietit Egypt, p. 436; W. R. Smith, op. cit., p. 302; J. G. Frazer, llie Golden Bough (3rd ed.). Part v., vol. ii. , pp. 34 et seq.

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