Mr. Hamilton Lang gives an amusing description of the strictly
conservative principles of the Cyprian oxen, which have always been fed
upon the straw broken by the process described in threshing by the
harrow of sharp flints. This coarse chaff, mixed with cotton-seed,
lentils, or barley, is eaten by all animals with avidity, and the
bullocks positively refused Mr. Lang's new food, which was the same
straw passed through an English threshing-machine and cut fine by a
modern chaff-cutter. This fact is a warning to those who would introduce
too sudden reforms among men and animals in a newly-acquired country;
but if Mr. Hamilton Lang had sprinkled salt over his chaff I think the
refractory appetites of the oxen might have been overcome. A pair of
oxen are supposed to plough one "donum" daily of fifty paces square, or
about half an acre.
Having watched the various teams, and conversed with the ploughmen by
the medium of the cook Christo, who spoke English and was an intelligent
interpreter, I ordered the vans to move on while I walked over the
country with the dogs. There was no game except a wild-duck which I shot
in the thick weeds of a neighbouring swamp. Larks were in great
quantities, and for want of larger birds I shot enough for a pilaff, and
secured a breakfast. The route, which could be hardly called a road, had
been worn by the wheels of native carts.
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