7. Tse'med, ^^'2, from the root TOIJ, to subject to the yoke ; hence a pair or yoke, as of asses, Judg. xix, 10 ;
ox
500
OX
2 Sam. xvi, 1 ; even of horsemen, as Isa. xxi, 7, 9 ; and also of oxtn, as 1 Sam. xi, 7; Job i, 3; xlii, 12. See Yoke.
8. Shor, "iVJ, from a root denoting to he strong or hold. It is a general term for animals of the beeve kind, without distinction of age or sex, and hence is variously rendered, according to the context : or, oxen, as Gen. xxxii, 5; Exod. xx, 17; xxii, 1,4; Deut. v, 1-1; Ezek. i, 10; bullock, Lev. iv, 10; ix, 4; xxii, 23; Hos. xii, 11; cow, Numb, xviii, 17. In Lev. xxii, 27, where the English Version has bullock, the context requires calf; and in Job xxi, 10, where it renders bull, the cow is meant. See Bull,
9. Ted', iSPl, only in Deut. xiv, 5, where our version has tvild ox, and with transposition of tlie last letters, to, XIFl, only in Isa. li, 20— rendered " wild bull ;" prob- ably means a species of antelope or mountain-fjoat ; so called from its swiftness, from the root nXP, to outrun. Yet the ancient interpreters generally render icild ox, and the exact meaning is uncertain (comp. Bochart, Hieroz, i, 973; Gesenius, Thesuur. s. v. ilXFl). See Antelope.
10. Tor, "liFl, the Chaldee term for ox, corresponding to the Hebrew "li'J, No. 8, above. It is found only in the plural, in Ezra vi, 9, 17 ; vii, 17, where it is trans- lated "bullocks," and in Dan. iv, 25, 32, 33; v, 21, where our version has " oxen."
Natural History of the Bovidce (chiefly from Kitto). — The earliest pastoral tribes appear to have had domesticated cattle in the herd ; and judging from the manners of South Africa, where we find nations still re- taining in many respects primeval usages, it is likely that the patriar- chal families, or at least their mova- bles, were transported on the backs of oxen in the manner which the Kaf- fres still practice, as also the Gwal- lahs and grain -merchants in India, who come down from the interior with whole droves bearing burdens. But, as the Hebrews did not castrate their bulls, it is plain some other method of enervation (bistournure ?) was nec- essary in order to render their violent and brutal indocility sufficiently tractable to permit the use of a metal ring or twisted rope passed through the nostrils, and to insure something like safety and com- mand to their owners. In Egypt, emasculation, no doubt, was resorted to, for no ring is observable in the numer- ous representations of cattle, while many of these indi- cate even more entire docility in these animals than is now attained.
The breeds of Egypt were various, differing in the length and flexure of the horns. There were some with long horns, others with sliort, and even none, while a luuiched race of Nubia reveals an Indian origin, and indicates that at least one of the nations on the Upper Nile had come from the valleys of the Ganges; for it is to the east of the Indus alone that that species is to be found whose original stock appears to be the mountain yak (/los grunniem). It is born with two teeth in the mouth, has a groaning voice, and is ])0S- sessed of other distinctive characteristics. Figures of this species or variety bear the significant lotus flower sus- pended from the neck, and, as is still practiced in India, they are harnessed to the cars of princesses of Nubia. These, as well as the straight-backed cattle of Egypt, are all figured with evident indications of beauty in their form, and they are in general painted white, with black or rufous clouds, or entirely red, speckled, ur gmu- dinated, that is, black, with lumierous small white specks; and there are also beeves with white and black occasionally marked in a peculiar manner, seemingly
the kind of tokens by which the priesthood pretended to recognise tlieir sacred individuals. The cattle of Egypt continued to be remarkable for beauty for some ages after the Moslem conquest.
The domestic buffalo was unknown to Western Asia and Egypt till after the Arabian conquest: it is now common in the last-mentioned region and far to the south, but not beyond the equator; and from structur- al differences it may be surmised that there was in ear- ly ages a domesticated distinct species of this animal in Africa. The buffalo (^£os bubalis) is not uncom- mon in Palestine; the Arabs call it jdmiis. Kobinson {/Jib. lies, iii, 30G) notices buffaloes '• around the lake el-Hiileh as being mingled with the neat cattle, and applied in general to the same uses. Thej' are a shy, ill-looking, ill-tempered animal." These animals love to wallow and lie for hours in water or mud, with bare- ly the nostrils above the surface. In Syria and Egypt the present races of domestic cattle are somewhat less than the large breeds of Europe, and those of Palestine appear to be of at least two forms, both with short horns and both used to the plough, one being tall and lank, the other more compact ; and we possess fig- ures of the present Egyptian cattle with long horns bent down and forwards. From Egj'ptian pictures it is to be inferred that large droves of fine cattle were imported from Abyssinia, and that in the valley of the Nile they were in general stall-fed, used exclu- sively for the ]il(iugh, and treated with humanity.