A History of Agriculture in India v2.c65.s20: Domestic Animals
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c65.s20
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Domestic Animals
v2.c65.s20.1
‘In this land they do not slaughter oxen or cows,’ states Paes. ‘The oxen are beasts of burden and are like sumpter-mules; these carry all their goods. They worship the cows, and have them in their pagodas made in stone, and also bulls; they have many bulls that they present to these pagodas, and these bulls go about the city without any one causing them any harm or loss. Further, there are asses in this country, but they are small, and they use them only for little things; those that wash clothes lay the clothes on them, and use them for this more than for anything else.’ Even at present washermen use asses for carrying clothes to rivers in India.
v2.c65.s20.2
‘There are also in this city places where they sell live sheep; you will see the fields round the city full of them, and also of cows and buffaloes—it is a very pretty sight to see—and also the many she-goats and kids, and the he-goats so large that they are bridled and saddled. Many sheep are like that also and boys ride them.’ The reference is to Nellore breed which is the tallest breed of sheep in India. Rams are horned and have long hair on the dewlap and brisket (Fig. 14).
v2.c65.s20.3
‘Then the sheep that they kill every day are countless, one could not number them, for in every street there are men who will sell you mutton, so clean and so fat that it looks like pork; and you also have pigs in some streets of butchers' houses so white and clean that you could never see better in any country; a pig is worth four or five *fanams*.
v2.c65.s20.4
'For the state of this city is not like that of other cities, which often fail of supplies and provisions, for in this one everything abounds; and also the quantity of butter and oil and milk sold every day, that is a thing I cannot refrain from mentioning; and as for the rearing of cows and buffaloes which goes on in the city, there is so much that you will go very far before you find another like it.'