Longhorn Cow Quotes

And that was the way it was in the old days before the country grew up and men put their guns away. Someday, and I hope it never comes, there may be a time when the Western hills are empty again and the land will go back to wilderness and the old, hard ways. Enemies may come into our country and times will have changed, but then the boys will come down from the old high hills and belt on their guns again. They can do it if they have to. The guns are hung up, the cows roam fat and lazy, but the old spirit is still there, just as it was when the longhorns came up the trail from Texas, and the boys washed the creeks for gold.

The average Texas cattle herd driven northward numbered 2,500 cows, composed primarily of hardy Texas longhorns, a breed that could travel long distances without water. A dozen cowboys, including a trail boss, along with 50–60 horses, four mules, and a chuck wagon (sometimes called a mess wagon) that hauled the food and bedding, accompanied the herd. Starting shortly after dawn, with a noon break, they moved about 15 miles a day. The trip could take from four to six months.

The desert was the birthplace of Egyptian theology. Cattle, women, water and milk were sources of regeneration and nourishment. Without water or milk there was sickness and death. These associations proved to be psychologically significant and formed the foundations of the Dynastic religion with the underlying theme of birth-death-rebirth as well as linking the cow with the life providing and protecting Goddess. The inclusion of cattle related artefacts in burials suggests an association with the afterlife. Clay models of long-horn cows have been found in Amratian or Naqada I (4000-3500 BCE) graves.