Water buffalo

After a long time there came back the drawling, sleepy snarl of a full-fed tiger just wakened.

“Who calls?” said Shere Khan, and a splendid peacock fluttered up out of the ravine screeching.

“I, Mowgli. Cattle thief, it is time to come to the Council Rock! Down – hurry them down, Akela! Down, Rama, down!”

The herd [of buffaloes] paused for an instant at the edge of the slope, but Akela gave tongue in the full hunting-yell, and they pitched over one after the other, just as steamers shoot rapids, the sand and stones spurting up round them. Once started, there was no chance of stopping, and before they were fairly in the bed of the ravine Rama winded Shere Khan and bellowed.

“Ha! Ha!” said Mowgli, on his back. “Now thou knowest!” and the torrent of black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down the ravine just as boulders go down in floodtime; the weaker buffaloes being shouldered out to the sides of the ravine where they tore through the creepers. They knew what the business was before them – the terrible charge of the buffalo herd against which no tiger can hope to stand. Shere Khan heard the thunder of their hoofs, picked himself up, and lumbered down the ravine, looking from side to side for some way of escape, but the walls of the ravine were straight and he had to hold on, heavy with his dinner and his drink, willing to do anything rather than fight. The herd splashed through the pool he had just left, bellowing till the narrow cut rang. Mowgli heard an answering bellow from the foot of the ravine, saw Shere Khan turn (the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the bulls than the cows with their calves), and then Rama tripped, stumbled, and went on again over something soft, and, with the bulls at his heels, crashed full into the other herd, while the weaker buffaloes were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting. That charge carried both herds out into the plain, goring and stamping and snorting. Mowgli watched his time, and slipped off Rama’s neck, laying about him right and left with his stick.

“Quick, Akela! Break them up. Scatter them, or they will be fighting one another. Drive them away, Akela. Hai, Rama! Hai, hai, hai! my children. Softly now, softly! It is all over.”

Akela and Grey Brother ran to and fro, nipping the buffaloes’ legs, and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again, Mowgli managed to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows.

Shere Khan needed no more trampling. He was dead, and the kites were coming for him already.”

Wild buffalos were domesticated about 5,000 years ago, and through selective breeding they have become the docile beasts that we today see working in the paddy fields, or pulling heavily loaded carts.

The difference between the domestic water buffalo and its wild cousin mainly lies in the shape of the horns, which in the wild form are massive, spreading out sideways almost horizontally, only curving at the tip, whereas the horns of the domestic form are smaller, curved almost from the base.

Two types of domestic water buffalo are recognized, the so-called river buffalo (Bubalus arnee ssp. bubalis) of the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East, and the Balkans, and the swamp buffalo (Bubalus arnee ssp. carabanesis), found from central China southwards to Southeast Asia and Assam in India. DNA studies indicate that the river buffalo was probably domesticated in India about 5,000 years ago, and the swamp buffalo probably in China about 4,000 years ago. Research has revealed that Indus Valley traders brought water buffalos to Mesopotamia about 2500 B.C.

Today, domesticated water buffalo are found in most hot countries of the world, and numbers may exceed 130 million. Their milk is richer and contains more fat than that of cattle, and their ability to pull the plough through rice fields surpasses that of any other animal.

Daoism is described in depth on the page Religion: Daoism in Taiwan.

You may read more about Hindu gods on the page Religion: Hinduism.

In the old days, the water buffalo and the yak were the best of friends. They both very much appreciated salt, but, sadly, this commodity was rather scarce. The yak volunteered to go into Tibet to look for salt, but before leaving he asked the water buffalo, if he could borrow his fur, so that he could keep warm in the fierce cold on the high Tibetan plateau. The buffalo readily agreed to this, and off the yak went, clad in a double layer of fur.

The buffalo waited and waited, but the yak never returned. Still today, the buffalo is often looking towards the high mountains in the north to see, when its friend will return with the salt and the borrowed fur.

The yak is described in detail on the page Animals as servants of Man: Cattle.