[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS the female of the animal above mentioned, and lives somewhat shorter than him. She has seldom more than one calf at once: and her time is about nine months. Alive, the Cow is a second mother to man; she yields her distended udders every morning and evening to feed us, and is generally soon deprived of her offspring in order, that, whilst it contrives to fill out markets, her milk may the longer pour in nectareous streams in our cups, be churned into butter, or pressed into cheese.
When dead, her flesh becomes our principal nourishment; her skin, being wrought into boots and shoes, defend us from the mud, and the rain; her hairs strengthen the plaster partitions of our houses, and her horns and hoofs, being melted and dissolved, add to our pleasure and comfort in a multifarious sort of ways; her diseases even have of late proved beneficial to mankind, in the successful attempt of Vaccination. For a long lapse of centuries, the Hindoos, well impressed with the sense of gratitude that so useful an animal could not fail to excite, have paid divine honours to the Cow, and worship her to this moment.