PENNANT describes the Zebu, or Indian Ox, as sometimes surpassing in size the largest of the European breeds, and the hunch on his shoulders as weighing frequently fifty pounds. There are many varieties, with and without horns, differing in size from that above-named, down to the dimensions of an ordinary hog. They are spread over the whole of Southern Asia, and also in Africa. In all these countries the Zebu supplies the place of the Ox, both as a beast of burden and as an article of food. By the Hindoos they are treated with great veneration, and it is held sinful to deprive them of life, or eat their flesh. A select number are exempted from all labour, and allowed to wander about, and subsist on the voluntary and pious contributions of the devotees of their faith. Emboldened by the toleration they experience, they make free with every vegetable to which they take a fancy, no one daring to resist or drive them away; often they lie down in the street; no one must disturb them: every one must give place to the sacred Ox of Brahma; thus they are frequently nuisances, which superstition alone would endure. [Illustration: THE SHEEP. (_Ovis Aries._)] THE Sheep has been so long subjected to the empire of man that it is not known with certainty from what race our domestic species has been derived. It is supposed, however, to be from the Mouflon, or Musmon, of Sardinia and Crete. This animal is one of the most useful ever bestowed on us by a bountiful Providence; and in patriarchal times the number of Sheep constituted the riches of kings and princes. It is universally known, its flesh being one of the chief kinds of human food, and its wool being of great use for clothing. Although of a moderate size, and well covered, it does not live more than nine or ten years. The Ewe has one or two young at a time, and the young one, which is called a lamb, has always been an emblem of innocence. In its domestic state it is too well known to require a detail of its peculiar habits, or of the methods which have been adopted to improve the breed. No country produces finer Sheep than England, either with larger fleeces or better adapted for the business of clothing. Those of Spain have confessedly finer wool, some of which we generally require to work up with our own, but the weight of a Spanish fleece is much inferior to one of Lincoln or Tees Water. Merino, or Spanish Sheep, have of late years been introduced with some success into our English pastures, and the wool of the hybrids, raised between the Merino Sheep and the South Down Sheep, is thought nearly equal to that of Spain.