Tour: the animal and its image. Historical legend - animal wild bull tur Revival of the bull tur

Animal, large size.

Origin of the primitive bull

There is a number of contemporary evidence of the existence from early historical times to the end of the Middle Ages in the territory of Europe, Western and Central Asia of a large wild bull, very similar in general appearance to domestic cattle and known under the names: ur, tour, powerox, rimu or reemu . There are even descriptions and images of this beast.

However, the simultaneous existence in the same territory of another closely related species, the European bison (Bison bonasus L.), and, in particular, the great rarity of the aurochs in the last centuries of its existence caused the ideas and names of these two species to begin to be confused even by contemporaries. It is no coincidence that S. Herberstein was forced to write a caption under the image of the tour: “Ya-ur, in Polish tour, in German aurox, the ignoramuses gave me the name bison.”

Later, this same reason served as the basis for a number of researchers, starting with Buffon, to question the general existence of the wild aurochs bull in the historical era. Pallas, for example, believed that bison and aurochs were two names for the same animal, that Herberstein was simply misled and that the humpless bull he depicted was nothing more than a feral buffalo. The same point of view was shared by the Polish paleontologist Pusch and even Boyanus, who for the first time described the primitive bull as an independent species, supposedly extinct in the prehistoric period.

Currently, a sufficient amount of irrefutable evidence has accumulated in favor of the indisputable existence of the wild bull - the aurochs - already in the historical era. Of this evidence, apart from the most convincing testimony of S. Herberstein, we will cite only a few. As I. Dolgikh showed, the ancient Slavic language distinguished between the names of bison and aurochs. Pliny clearly noted the aurochs and the bison when he wrote: “Scythia is very poor in animals, and in Germany there are few of them, but two types of bulls are remarkable: namely, the bison decorated with a mane and the ur, distinguished by its strength and speed.” The monk Exgarm, who lived around the same time, listing the food that was eaten in his monastery, separately names the bison (Wisent) and the aurochs (Ur). The world map of Ebstorf, published in 1284, shows both Bonacus (aurochs) and Urus (aurochs) among other images of animals characteristic of different areas.

Lavrentiy Surov wrote in 1564: “Those who call Urs (Uros) bisons (Bisontes) are mistaken, for bison differ in many ways from Urs.” Finally, it should be remembered that until recently (and in some places even now) horns were kept in castles, churches and hotels, either as vessels for wine or simply as decorations, which, judging by their size, could only belong to a wild bull - tour.

The structure of a primitive bull

It is impossible to describe the tur in the same completeness and consistency as for modern animals. Essentially, more or less satisfactory and credible information about its appearance was given only by S. Herberstein, who personally saw at least the body of the aurochs, and by the famous zoologist of the late 16th - early 17th centuries. K. Gesner. Herberstein also gave the first, somewhat satisfactory image of the tour. There are disputes about whether Herberstein saw live aurochs and whether the drawings of the aurochs and bison for his “Muscovy” were made from life or from stuffed animals that stood in his house in Vienna and subsequently disappeared without a trace. The latter assumption is more likely. What is indisputable, however, is that the Polish king Syagismund-August presented Herberstein, who was then ambassador to his court, with a gutted corpse of a tour, covered with skin, except for the forehead, from which it had been cut off earlier. The drawings of the aurochs and bison, apparently made from clumsily stuffed animals, are very imperfect. The animals look awkward and in very forced poses. Some body proportions are probably distorted. But, firstly, the image of the tour here is much better than on the mentioned Ebstorf map. Secondly, its value lies in the fact that it was made to order from a person who saw the animal in real life and, therefore, could prevent gross distortions. Already these imperfect images convey the most characteristic distinctive features of the aurochs and the bison; only the horns of both species are shown the same, and the image of the bison suffers more from the truth. Apparently the best known is the so-called “Augsburg” image of the aurochs, first reproduced by G. Smith. According to this author, it represents a copy of a painting he discovered in the possession of a dealer in Augsburg, of mediocre quality, made in oil on wood, and judging by the technique of execution, dating back to the first quarter of the 16th century, i.e., about a hundred years before the final extinction of the aurochs. The bull depicted in the painting did not have a dewlap on its neck, but was covered with rather coarse hair, had a large head, a thick neck and a small dewlap. Its coloring is “black as soot”, except for the white chin. The horns had a curve characteristic of Romanian and Podolian domestic bulls, and were light in color, except for the dark tops. In the corner of the picture were visible the remains of heraldic symbols and, in addition, the almost erased word “tiig” written in gold Gothic letters. The further fate of the original is unknown - it disappeared without a trace, and what was made from it and published by G. Smith's copy was subsequently reproduced many times.

All other descriptions and images of the primeval bull are fragmentary, imperfect, and most importantly, largely contradictory.

A critical comparison of the available descriptions of contemporaries and almost complete skeletons found in the ground (the number of the latter is currently more than ten) allows us to conclude that the aurochs was a large bull, significantly exceeding the size of bison and livestock, even large breeds. The height of adult males at the withers was 175-200 cm, and according to some data even more.

Habitat and distribution of primitive bulls

The most plausible is the assumption of V.I. Gromova that the species of primitive bull occurred as a result of the gradual shrinking of the Pleistocene V. trochoceros Meyer from the end of the Ice Age. It is very difficult to draw both a morphological line and a time line between these two species. At the same time, the shallowing of the Quaternary aurochs occurred independently simultaneously in both Europe and Asia, where the descendant of the Upper Pliocene and Lower Quaternary aurochs was B. namadicus Falc., the remains of which were found in India along with the tools of Paleolithic man.

It is believed that in Western Europe, in particular in Germany, aurochs appeared only before or at the beginning of the Rissian time, and as a species B. primigenius lived from the last interglacial epoch or even from the lower Holocene.

Undoubtedly, Paleolithic man encountered aurochs and hunted them. Rock carvings of bulls of the aurochs type are found in a number of Upper Paleolithic caves in France, Spain, northern Africa, Sicily and some other places. There are known finds in Denmark and England of skulls with flint tips from arrows and spears pierced into the forehead. In England, even a complete skeleton of an aurochs with a pierced forehead was found, and in Denmark a skeleton with traces of damage to the ribs by a stone tool.

It should be noted that the tour, at least in Europe, appears to have never been particularly large. This is evidenced not only by the rarity of its finds in fossil form, but also by the small number of cave images of it compared to the bison.

It is believed that the last specimen of the aurora fell in 1627. However, it should be borne in mind that in some places in zoos and menageries the aurora could have been preserved a little longer. It is possible that they lived longer in Zamoyski’s menagerie than in the Jaktorow Forest. There is an indication that requires verification, as if as early as 1669 aurochs lived in the zoological garden of Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad), unless the usual confusion of the names aurochs and bison took place here.

Biology of the primitive bull

Information on the biology of the tur is sparse and fragmentary. In the descriptions of contemporaries we find them only in Sventsitsky, Mukante, Vigenère and Gesner.

All sources from the period of the last centuries of the existence of the aurochs in Europe agree that it was a typical forest animal and was often even called a forest bull. At one time, he inhabited the vast Hercynian Forest, and in the end - the remnant of the latter, the Yaktorovskaya Forest Forest. The Yaktorovsky forest, according to Lukashevich, consisted of pine, oak, ash, alder, maple, elm, hornbeam, and birch. The surroundings of the forest were marshes (swamps). Moreover, according to contemporaries, the tur inhabited the most remote areas of this forest.

Reproduction of primitive bulls

Mating among aurochs occurred in September. Fierce fights took place between the males at this time, often ending in the death of both sides.

Calving occurred in May. Before calving, the females retired into the thicket, where they remained with the newborns for about 20 days. After that we went out to more open places. Mothers carefully protected their calves from wolves and humans. Occasionally, cases of late mating and calving were observed (in September), but, as a rule, calves born in the fall died in the winter.

There were numerous cases of wild aurochs mating with livestock, but the hybrid offspring turned out to be nonviable and for some reason died, especially in harsh winters.

Infraclass - placental

Subfamily - bulls

Nadrod - bulls and buffaloes

Species - primitive bull or aurochs

Literature:

1. I.I. Sokolov "Fauna of the USSR, Hoofed Animals" Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1959.

The appearance of the aurochs was completely exterminated and disappeared as a wild animal more than three hundred years ago, and its craniological and skeletal features are well known. There are folklore materials, descriptions of the beast made by travelers, images in ancient books, in particular, the wonderful so-called “Augsburg image”, various historical evidence and numerous images of the aurochs on utensils and other archaeological objects. There are a very large number of wonderful wall paintings of prehistoric man in the caves of Spain and France. The paleontological material is also great.

The bulls were enormous in size and significantly larger than modern domestic bulls. Their height at the shoulders was 170-180 cm and their weight was from 600 to 800 kg. According to some information, the height at the withers even reached 200 cm. These data, however, date back to an earlier time - in the last centuries of their existence, aurochs were smaller, and their height apparently did not exceed 150 cm. Cows were significantly smaller than bulls . The difference between them, judging by some data, was greater than that of modern domestic animals.

In general appearance, the aurochs was a relatively light animal, with a not too massive front part of the body and rather high legs. He was much lighter and slimmer than our domestic bulls. His withers were low, his back was straight, only slightly rising towards the withers, his croup was straight. The head is proportional, set quite high, rather narrow at the forehead, with a straight profile, very similar to the head of livestock. The horns are large, very sharp, light with dark ends. They extend from the skull, first to the sides, then up and forward, and slightly inward, the very end upward. When the head was tilted, the horns pointed forward. The ears are small, the end of the muzzle is bare. The neck is massive, with a slight dewlap. The tail is not long, its end descending only slightly below the hock joint. Cows in general appearance, in particular and in the development of horns, did not differ particularly from bulls, but had a lighter build. The front part of the body was less massive and the head was lighter.

The hair in the summer fur was apparently short and close-lying, but somewhat longer than that of livestock. Almost the entire tail is covered with short hair, only at the end is a large brush of elongated hair. On the forehead between the horns the hair was elongated and curly. Apparently, the hair on the withers was also very slightly lengthened. The winter fur was longer and rather shaggy, longer than that of livestock.

There were sharp gender differences in the coloration of aurochs. The bulls were painted smooth black or black with a brownish tint. The end of the muzzle (chin and hair along the border of the bare part) was somewhat lighter, and a narrow light (almost white) belt, very characteristic of the aurochs, ran along the back. Apparently, the belly and inner parts of the legs were slightly lighter than the body. The cows were reddish-brown (bay) and, apparently, also had a narrow light-colored dorsal strap. Winter coloration* of cows was darker. The calves in the first outfit had a bright bay color - like cows or brighter.

The tours were characterized by quite significant individual variability. As can be judged from the drawings of prehistoric man and some paleontological materials, it was expressed in a change in overall dimensions and in the size and shape of the horns. They, apparently, always, at least in bulls, were directed with their ends forward, but the shape of their bend at the base apparently changed, and they were not always curved exactly as described above and depicted in drawing. Apparently, irregularities in the shape of horns occurred more often in cows. The intensity of color also changed and sometimes (very rarely) cows acquired the dark color characteristic of bulls.

It is possible that in the last millennium of the free existence of the aurochs there could have been cases of its crossing with livestock and, in connection with this, increased variability.

Such a widely distributed animal (from the Scandinavia Peninsula to North Africa and Mesopotamia), which existed in very different natural conditions, undoubtedly had to exhibit geographic variability. However, very little is known about this. Apparently, there were differences in both size and color. So, the North African tours were bright red. In our epics, in which the tour is mentioned quite often, they usually talk about the “bay tour”. Perhaps the turs of the Dnieper region had exactly this coloring, but more likely it was as described above.

The systematic position and connections of precisely that form that has survived to our era, that is, Bos primigenius itself, and the limits of its existence in the depths of time are not yet entirely clear. For the Pleistocene, partly even the boundaries of the Pliocene and even the very top of the Pliocene, many forms - species and subspecies of the genus Bos - have been described. Some authors accept 5-6 species of this genus for the territory of the USSR. On the other hand, it is more correct to consider that there were only two of them - the glacial Bos trochoceros and the post-glacial modern aurochs that descended from it. Bos primigenius. Everything else is just geographical or chronological races or individual variations. This concept seems very convincing.

The distribution of the tour was very wide. During glacial and post-glacial times, fossil remains and other data (images) on the habitat of the tur are known for North Africa from Egypt to Mauritania, almost all of Europe north to 60°, from the Southern Urals and from the Trans-Urals and the south of Western Siberia (from Ishim, Altai, pre-Altai plains), from near Krasnoyarsk, from Transbaikalia, Manchuria and China from 50° to 40° N. w. to the south and east to the Pacific Ocean, and in addition, from Turkmenistan (Annau near Ashgabat), from the Caucasus, from the Crimea, Asia Minor, Palestine, Mesopotamia and some other adjacent places.

Some of this information relates to Bos trochoceros, some, undoubtedly, to our tour, but to a very distant time. Therefore, it is very difficult to identify in this territory the one on which the Turs lived precisely in historical times, or at least in the last millennia. Archaeological, folklore and historical materials most likely suggest that in historical times the aurochs were found in North Africa (Egypt, North-West Africa, Mauritania) throughout Southern, Central and Western Europe, including England (in Ireland they apparently , was not), north to southern Sweden inclusive, in the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia and, perhaps, in southern Turkmenistan.

On the territory of the European part of the USSR, the Turs lived in the Baltic republics, in Lithuania and Belarus, in the Dnieper basin (in any case, near Chernigov and Kiev) and, probably, in the Don basin, at least in its upper part. In the north, they were found east to the Novgorod region and the southern shore of Lake Ladoga (the northernmost point of the species' habitat). It is possible that the animals lived or visited the regions of Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Smolensk, Kalinin, Yaroslavl and Novgorod1. In the middle of the first millennium BC, the tur apparently was widespread throughout the steppes of Ukraine and even Ciscaucasia - excellent images of the animal are known from the Chertomlytsky and Maikop mounds.

Thus, our habitat was an irregular triangle, based on the western border of the state, in the north starting from Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland. The apex of the triangle covered the Don basin and extended with a cape into the Ciscaucasia. The northeastern border probably skirted Moscow from the south. The spread of this animal, which feeds mainly on grass, to the northeast was probably hampered by heavy snowfall and the duration of the snowy season. The tour hardly crossed the snow depth line of 50 cm.

Apparently, before historical times, aurochs lived in both Western Siberia and Kazakhstan, however, the available isolated indications do not make it possible to form an idea of ​​​​the animal’s habitat here and the connections of these habitats with the European one. There are images of the aurochs several thousand years old in the Minusinsk Basin and, apparently, later ones, on the rocks of the Chulak Mountains in the middle reaches of the Ili; There is information about the habitat of the tur in the Kamensky district of the Kulunda steppe in the 16th or 17th centuries and near Kuznetsk in the 18th century.

There is very little information about the biology of the tur. In Europe, at least in historical times, he stuck to forests, some even continuous, damp and swampy. However, there is no doubt that in some parts of the range and even in most of it, he lived in sparse forests, or where forests were interspersed with meadows, and in forest-steppe and even in open steppe spaces with poorly developed forest vegetation (urena forests) or in places maybe even without it at all (Africa). In Europe, in the last centuries of their life, aurochs also preferred open meadow pastures in the summer and went into the forests for the winter, feeding there partly on twig food.

It is very likely that the continuous forests, in which the last Lithuanian and Polish aurochs actually lived, were for them (as well as for the bison) the last refuge, where the animals were driven away by human persecution. In some places (Pyrenees), aurochs lived in the mountains, up to alpine meadows.

The Turs lived in small groups. According to some information, they formed these herds mainly in the winter, and in the summer they stayed more alone. In addition to grass and shoots of trees and shrubs, acorns also played a certain role in their diet in the fall, on which the animals grew very fat. The rut took place in September, with calves born in the spring.

Turs had a wild and evil disposition, were not afraid of humans and were very aggressive. In Russian folklore and chronicles, they serve as a symbol of not only power, but also courage (“brave bo be yako and tur”, “bui tur Vsevolodovich”). Hunting them, given their strength and mobility (they, as the epics emphasize, were quite agile and could run quickly) was very dangerous and was considered a valiant deed. “Two rounds metasha me on roses and with a horse,” wrote Vladimir Monomakh, who was a wonderful hunter. Some researchers explain the small number of remains of the aurochs in ancient human settlements with the abundance of bison remains by the fact that the aurochs was too dangerous an enemy and too difficult a prey for Paleolithic and even Neolithic people. Adult bulls often fought among themselves and, apparently, with bison. In essence, they had no enemies among predators - wolves were not dangerous for adult animals and only calves and young ones suffered from them.

In the described vast territory, the aurochs were exterminated, apparently also partly replaced by cattle breeding, at different times, partly a very long time ago. So, in Egypt, the wild aurochs died by the end of the ancient kingdom (before 2400 BC), in Mesopotamia it existed, apparently, longer - it lived during the Babylonian kingdom, but was no longer found in the later times of the Assyrian kingdom (about 600 BC). In Central Europe, aurochs lived in the Middle Ages and survived in places, for example, along the Rhine, until the 12th century. In this century (at least at the beginning of it) they existed in a wild state along the Dnieper, in particular in the Chernigov lands. Here, during his Chernigov reign, Prince Vladimir Vsevolodovich (Monomakh) hunted them.

By 1400, aurochs had disappeared in Central and Western Europe, but were still found in the Kaliningrad region, and after that, in general, they survived the longest in Poland (especially in Mazovia) and partly in Lithuania. For the last centuries and until the date of the death of the last tour (1627), the animals lived here under the protection of special decrees, and then were kept as park animals in the royal hunting grounds. They had guards with them, haystacks were placed for them for the winter, etc. The death of the aurochs in Central Europe coincided chronologically and is largely associated with the “era of fellings” in the 9th-11th centuries. (in the 11th century they were still common in royal hunting grounds in the Vosges). Their preservation in Poland and Lithuania was obviously due to the presence of vast forest spaces that are inaccessible and sparsely populated by humans.

The aurochs is the ancestor of European cattle. In some of the most primitive rocks, individual signs of it have been preserved quite clearly. These breeds include Scottish and English park cattle, Hungarian steppe cattle, gray Ukrainian and some others, especially the fighting bulls of Spain and southern France, in particular the semi-wild bulls of the Camargue (the mouth of the Rhone).

The preservation of the most typical turian appearance among fighting bulls is explained primarily by the conscious maintenance of the type of animal that was required by the traditions of the arena, going back to very distant times. In particular, this applies to the shape of the horns, as well as the black color. At the same time, fighting bulls are not entirely of the same type and among them there are separate “lines” associated with individual factories (“ganaderias”) that cultivate animals specifically for “corrida” (bullfighting). In some of these lines the features of the tour are more pronounced than in others.

The domestication of the aurochs occurred about 4000 years ago (2000 years before our era) in South-Eastern Europe (Greece). From here the domestic form spread west and northwest into the Baltic Sea basin and by our time has reached great diversity.

In the last decade, several attempts have been made to “restore” the tur, that is, to obtain an animal with the appearance of the tur. Those that were made in the Berlin Zoological Garden and in Munich deserve special attention. Through a thoughtful selection of material from several primitive domestic races, primarily from Spanish fighting bulls, and careful selection, it was possible to obtain very interesting results in a surprisingly short time. The Berlin stock, where a great resemblance to the aurochs had already been achieved, died during the war. In Munich, in the 50s, animals were obtained that were essentially completely similar to the aurochs, only, apparently, somewhat heavy. Bulls have not only a completely typical overall black color, characteristic horns and some other signs of an aurochs, but even a light belt along the back. It was possible to restore even the bay coloration of cows and young animals, i.e., to obtain the sexual and age dimorphism characteristic of the aurochs. This is especially remarkable because not only among those taken into the experiment, but in general, not a single modern breed of livestock has either one or the other form of dimorphism.

The “restored” aurochs are considered to be a special form of livestock that purely phenotypically copies the aurochs. The appearance of age and sexual dimorphism characteristic of the present tour from certain points of view may, however, allow us to see something more here.

By 1400, aurochs lived only in relatively sparsely populated and inaccessible forests in the territory of modern Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. Here they were taken under the protection of the law and lived as park animals on royal lands. In 1599, a small herd of aurochs - 24 individuals - still lived in the royal forest 50 km from Warsaw. By 1602, only 4 animals remained in this herd, and in 1627 the last aurochs on Earth died. However, the disappeared aurochs left a good memory of itself: it was these bulls that in ancient times became the ancestors of various breeds of cattle. Currently, there are enthusiasts who hope to revive the aurochs, using, in particular, Spanish bulls, which have more than others preserved the features of their wild ancestors (lat. Bos taurus africanus). In the 1920s and 1930s, the Hake Ox, bred with many of the wild characteristics, appeared in Germany ( in French)

The tour is depicted on the national coat of arms of the Republic of Moldova, on the coat of arms of the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, as well as on the coat of arms of the city of Turka in the Lviv region of Ukraine.

Tour in Slavic folklore and rituals

Tur is one of the animals beloved by Slavic folklore. Despite the fact that this animal has long been extinct, its name is still found in proverbs, songs, epics and rituals in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and Slovakia. Proverbs about tours were recorded in Podolia, Kiev region and Galicia, that is, in the places where the tour was once distributed. The tour in song and ritual extends far beyond its former scope. In Ukrainian songs, the tour was preserved in wedding songs and carols, usually in connection with the hunt for it. In Russian folk poetry, the tour is found in epics about Dobrynya and Marina, about Vasily Ignatievich and Solove Budimirovich. In rituals, the tur is mainly a “tour” in mummery at Christmas time. Alexander Veselovsky traces this custom back to the Roman mummering of a calf, but there is also ritual mummerization of a bull in other cults, for example in the Buddhist cult. In connection with the role of the tour in the ritual, the May holidays are called “turitsami” by Slovaks, Poles and Western Ukrainians. The Lviv Nomocanon of the 17th century mentions the pagan game “tura”. The game of aurochs survived in Ruthenian Podlasie until the end of the 19th century and was described by Valentin Moshkov. This game is related to games of a mating nature. The tours in it are humanoid. Professor Nikolai Sumtsov considered the tour of Russian rituals to replace the bull of rituals of other peoples.

Efforts to bring the tour back

Adolf Hitler dreamed of reviving the extinct aurochs, widely represented in Teutonic mythology. The Nazi program to recreate the aurochs consisted of crossbreeding cattle brought from Scotland, Corsica and the French Camargue. Breeding (German) Heckrind ) were engaged in by the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck. After the fall of the Hitler regime, almost the entire population of “Nazi cows” was destroyed.

Currently, the Dutch environmental organization Taurus Foundation in the TaurOs Project is trying, by backcrossing primitive breeds of European cattle, to obtain an animal that in its appearance, size and behavior will correspond to the extinct aurochs. As part of a project carried out jointly with the nature protection organization European Wildlife, these animals will be used to conserve valuable natural grasslands in Central European countries.

In Poland, scientists from the Polish Association for the Reproduction of Tours (Polish. Polska Fundacja Odtworzenia Tura ) to clone this extinct animal, they intend to use DNA preserved in bones from archaeological finds. The project is supported by the Polish Ministry of Environmental Protection.

see also

• Heck Bull ( in French)

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Notes

Excerpt characterizing Tur (bull)

Tender melancholy, oh, come and comfort me,
Come, soothe the torment of my dark solitude
And add secret sweetness
To these tears that I feel flowing.]
Julie played Boris the saddest nocturnes on the harp. Boris read Poor Liza aloud to her and more than once interrupted his reading from the excitement that took his breath away. Meeting in a large society, Julie and Boris looked at each other as the only indifferent people in the world who understood each other.
Anna Mikhailovna, who often went to the Karagins, making up her mother’s party, meanwhile made correct inquiries about what was given for Julie (both Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests were given). Anna Mikhailovna, with devotion to the will of Providence and tenderness, looked at the refined sadness that connected her son with the rich Julie.
“Toujours charmante et melancolique, cette chere Julieie,” she said to her daughter. - Boris says that he rests his soul in your house. “He has suffered so many disappointments and is so sensitive,” she told her mother.
“Oh, my friend, how attached I have become to Julie lately,” she said to her son, “I can’t describe to you!” And who can not love her? This is such an unearthly creature! Ah, Boris, Boris! “She fell silent for a minute. “And how I feel sorry for her maman,” she continued, “today she showed me reports and letters from Penza (they have a huge estate) and she is poor, all alone: ​​she is so deceived!
Boris smiled slightly as he listened to his mother. He meekly laughed at her simple-minded cunning, but listened and sometimes asked her carefully about the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates.
Julie had long been expecting a proposal from her melancholic admirer and was ready to accept it; but some secret feeling of disgust for her, for her passionate desire to get married, for her unnaturalness, and a feeling of horror at renouncing the possibility of true love still stopped Boris. His vacation was already over. He spent whole days and every single day with the Karagins, and every day, reasoning with himself, Boris told himself that he would propose tomorrow. But in the presence of Julie, looking at her red face and chin, almost always covered with powder, at her moist eyes and at the expression of her face, which always expressed a readiness to immediately move from melancholy to the unnatural delight of marital happiness, Boris could not utter a decisive word: despite the fact that for a long time in his imagination he considered himself the owner of Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates and distributed the use of income from them. Julie saw Boris's indecisiveness and sometimes the thought occurred to her that she was disgusting to him; but immediately the woman’s self-delusion came to her as a consolation, and she told herself that he was shy only out of love. Her melancholy, however, began to turn into irritability, and not long before Boris left, she undertook a decisive plan. At the same time that Boris's vacation was ending, Anatol Kuragin appeared in Moscow and, of course, in the Karagins' living room, and Julie, unexpectedly leaving her melancholy, became very cheerful and attentive to Kuragin.
“Mon cher,” Anna Mikhailovna said to her son, “je sais de bonne source que le Prince Basile envoie son fils a Moscou pour lui faire epouser Julieie.” [My dear, I know from reliable sources that Prince Vasily sends his son to Moscow in order to marry him to Julie.] I love Julie so much that I would feel sorry for her. What do you think, my friend? - said Anna Mikhailovna.
The thought of being a fool and wasting this whole month of difficult melancholy service under Julie and seeing all the income from the Penza estates already allocated and properly used in his imagination in the hands of another - especially in the hands of the stupid Anatole, offended Boris. He went to the Karagins with the firm intention of proposing. Julie greeted him with a cheerful and carefree look, casually talked about how much fun she had at yesterday's ball, and asked when he was leaving. Despite the fact that Boris came with the intention of talking about his love and therefore intended to be gentle, he irritably began to talk about women's inconstancy: how women can easily move from sadness to joy and that their mood depends only on who looks after them. Julie was offended and said that it was true that a woman needs variety, that everyone will get tired of the same thing.
“For this, I would advise you...” Boris began, wanting to tell her a caustic word; but at that very moment the offensive thought came to him that he could leave Moscow without achieving his goal and losing his work for nothing (which had never happened to him). He stopped in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes so as not to see her unpleasantly irritated and indecisive face and said: “I didn’t come here at all to quarrel with you.” On the contrary...” He glanced at her to make sure he could continue. All her irritation suddenly disappeared, and her restless, pleading eyes were fixed on him with greedy expectation. “I can always arrange it so that I rarely see her,” thought Boris. “And the work has begun and must be done!” He blushed, looked up at her and told her: “You know my feelings for you!” There was no need to say any more: Julie’s face shone with triumph and self-satisfaction; but she forced Boris to tell her everything that is said in such cases, to say that he loves her, and has never loved any woman more than her. She knew that she could demand this for the Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests and she received what she demanded.
The bride and groom, no longer remembering the trees that showered them with darkness and melancholy, made plans for the future arrangement of a brilliant house in St. Petersburg, made visits and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.

Count Ilya Andreich arrived in Moscow at the end of January with Natasha and Sonya. The Countess was still unwell and could not travel, but it was impossible to wait for her recovery: Prince Andrei was expected to go to Moscow every day; in addition, it was necessary to purchase a dowry, it was necessary to sell the property near Moscow, and it was necessary to take advantage of the presence of the old prince in Moscow to introduce him to his future daughter-in-law. The Rostov house in Moscow was not heated; in addition, they arrived for a short time, the countess was not with them, and therefore Ilya Andreich decided to stay in Moscow with Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who had long offered her hospitality to the count.
Late in the evening, four of the Rostovs' carts drove into Marya Dmitrievna's yard in the old Konyushennaya. Marya Dmitrievna lived alone. She has already married off her daughter. Her sons were all in the service.
She still held herself straight, she also spoke directly, loudly and decisively to everyone her opinion, and with her whole being she seemed to reproach other people for all sorts of weaknesses, passions and hobbies, which she did not recognize as possible. From early morning in the kutsaveyka, she did housework, then went: on holidays to mass and from mass to prisons and prisons, where she had business that she did not tell anyone about, and on weekdays, after getting dressed, she received petitioners of different classes at home who came to her every day, and then had lunch; There were always about three or four guests at the hearty and tasty dinner; after dinner I made a round of Boston; At night she forced herself to read newspapers and new books, and she knitted. She rarely made exceptions for trips, and if she did, she went only to the most important people in the city.

The Caucasian tur, or stone goat, is an animal living emblem of the Caucasus mountains. The bearded head of the aurochs is crowned with heavy saber-shaped horns. Tur is the highest mountain animal of the Caucasus.

Surprisingly dexterous and resilient, mountain goats, they also chose the safest habitats for themselves, in their opinion.

Caucasian tour animal - female with baby

True, the Caucasian tour spends most of the year among rocky crevices with scanty grass, and only in severe frosts do the animals descend down to the fir forest, and even then only females with babies.

Ibex

When the tours are resting, they seem leisurely and ponderous. Indeed, the weight of male turs reaches 100-150 kg!

But suddenly a danger signal sounds - sharp whistling of a guard stone goat- and instantly the entire herd of animals will easily flutter along the stone cornices, jumping from rock to rock to rock for three to four meters.

Even a five-day-old Turtle can, almost without bending its legs, jump onto a high stone shelf. No predator can keep up with climbing goats. Turs die only in avalanches and from the bullets of heartless poachers.

Most of us, looking at photographs of cave paintings, do not think about who exactly our ancestors depicted. Tigers, mammoths, bulls... Nothing interesting, somehow everything is unrealistic and the proportions are not respected...

FIERCE GIANTS

Primitive wild bulls, most often called aurochs, were huge. During the Pleistocene era (which ended about 12,000 years ago), the height of the male reached 2 m, and the weight reached up to a ton. Gradually, the aurochs decreased in size, it is assumed that this was facilitated by the disappearance of enemies after the last ice age. As a result, their height stopped at 180 cm, and their weight stopped at 800 kg.

It was from the aurochs that livestock originated, although this fact remained a hypothesis for a long time: it was questioned that the aurochs’ habitat was too large, but later it was proven that the aurochs lived not only in Europe, but also in the Caucasus, North Africa and in Asia Minor.

Externally, aurochs differed from modern bulls not only in size, but also in the length of their horns, which formed the shape of a lyre and could reach a meter in length. People were afraid of these animals, since aurochs often attacked hunters. Males were especially ferocious, while females attacked only if a person approached the cub. The sharp horns pierced a person right through, and after the victim fell, the auroch trampled it.

The bull also used its horns during mating games, and if it did not die during this period, it could live up to 15 years - this was the life expectancy of ancient bulls.

SHOW YOUR REGISTRATION

Scientists disagree about the aurochs' habitat. Some believe that they lived in forests, others believe that primitive bulls preferred open spaces. Most likely, the aurochs loved pastures, since their main food was various herbs. And only after being forced into the forests did the bulls begin to eat leaves of trees and shrubs, as well as acorns.

The last individuals of aurochs lived in swampy forests, since in open space they were even easier prey for hunters.

The Turs lived in small groups, but there were also those who preferred solitude. In winter, several groups united and formed a fairly large herd. Before calving, the females would go far into the forest and wait until the calf was strong enough to go to the field.

HUNT IS MORE THAN BONDAGE

The Turs that lived in different regions differed greatly from each other. North Africans were similar to Eurasians, but their color was lighter. The Indian subspecies was smaller in size. Judging by DNA tests, even aurochs from different parts of Europe had differences. However, this did not stop people from domesticating these animals 8,000 years ago. At first, this process had a purely ritual significance, then the aurochs began to be domesticated to be used as labor, and only some time later they began to be considered as a source of milk.

And then people. loved hunting. And it was because of hunting that the tours disappeared from the face of the earth. First, the North African ones disappeared, then the Mesopotamian ones... Soon the aurochs remained only in Central Europe, but due to deforestation in the Middle Ages and active hunting in the 15th century, wild bulls remained only in the modern territory, where they hid in inaccessible forests. At the end of the 16th century, they began to protect the aurochs, but it was too late. By that time they lived only near Warsaw, and their numbers were sharply declining. And by 1620, only one female remained alive, who died seven years later of natural causes. So the tours disappeared from the face of the earth.

Today, scientists are not giving up attempts to revive the population of these amazing animals. They are experimenting with those types of modern bulls that most closely resemble the ancient ones (in particular with Spanish and Italian species), but, alas, the attempts do not lead to the desired result.

HITLER'S FAILED PLAN

By the way, the Nazis faced a similar problem at one time. In the 1930s there was a project to restore the prehistoric landscape and its flora and fauna. Goering became the curator of the project, and the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck worked on the revival of lost species. Lutz was the director of the Berlin Zoo, and Heinz was the director of the Munich Zoo. Long before Hitler came to power, the brothers began working on recreating the tur and forest tarpan. It took them about 14 years to bring out new tours. To create them, they took rather aggressive Spanish bulls and bison. Both of them underwent careful selection, because the new aurochs had to have a large body mass and long horns.

In 1932, a beast was born, which was called the “Heck bull,” but it was far from being a tour. The hake weighed only 600 kg, and the color was not the same. Perhaps the only thing that hake had in common with aurochs was aggressiveness, which was directed at absolutely everything: people, animals, trees.

For many years, the Heck bull could only be seen in the Munich and Berlin zoos. The breed's breeding program was so popular that the bred primitive bulls flourished and were used in Nazi propaganda materials during World War II. The Nazis dreamed of populating Belovezhskaya Pushcha with aurochs and hunting them for fun, but their plans could not be put into practice. The hake breeding center was destroyed by air strikes, and the animals that ran out were shot right in the streets, because they were very aggressive.

WORTHY OF CAESAR'S ATTENTION

Information about the ferocious tour is found in many manuscripts. In his Notes on the Gallic War, Julius Caesar did not forget to mention the aurochs, writing that they are smaller in size than elephants and are relatives of bulls.

He noted that the aurochs run fast and it is impossible to feel safe if these bulls are nearby.

Caesar believed that they could not be domesticated and that those who had collections of the horns of killed aurochs were highly respected.

FROM MYTHS AND LEGENDS

If you remember the ancient myths, it will become clear. That it was the auroch that was exalted by many civilizations, the bull was considered the embodiment of one or another god, mentions of it are found not only in the myths of the Mediterranean, but also in, including in the ancient Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The cult of the bull was very developed in Crete and in. The Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, says that the supreme deity created a bull and a man, who created the world while simultaneously fighting evil forces - in the end they destroyed the bull. In Crete, acrobats performed tricks in the same arena with bulls, which was associated with the cult of fertility. Moreover, the Cretan monster Minotaur was half bull. In ancient times, Zeus was associated with a bull: just remember the myth about the abduction of the beautiful Europa by Zeus. Among the Slavs, the bull, along with the bear, was associated with the god Veles.