A Remarkable Ceremony.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11, 11 September 1912, Page 12

A Remarkable Ceremony.

9n the Vai de Kerens, near Sion, in the Rhone Valley, •Switzerland, a very ancient and, truth to tell, somewhat barbarious ceremony has just taken place—the choosing of a Queen Cow by the cows themselves, on the high Alpine pastures, to which they generally go about the first week in July. Two hundred and thirty cows were assembled on the battlefield to vhoose their quern

—in other words, to find out which of them was strong enough to fight all the other cows off the pasture, and remain in possession of it herself. The points of their horns had been carefully taken off beforehand by their owners, who are not now allowed either to egg their cows on to fight or to prevent them from fighting. The ■reason for these regulations is that the honour of owning a Queen Cow is so keenly coveted by the local herdsmen that they would do al most anything in order to possess it. Some of these herdsmen, indeed, in their anxiety for their cow to distinguish herself, will even feed her for a week or a fortnight 'beforehand on bread and wine. The cows themselves are descended from a combative breed (that of the Vai dTferens). Fighting is in their very blood, and ofteTi the herdsmen have to keep the peace between them during the summer months. Before the cows were led up to the scene of the battle, which, •was carefully marked out on an Alpine pasture, the cure of the neighbouring village of Vex solemnly blessed the pas tore and sprinkled the cattle with holy water. The fight for the honour of being Queen of the Alpen went on for most of a day, and crowds of herdsmen and peasantry, and even some tourists, watched it. The queen cow for 1912 is a rather small animal, very strongly planted on her hoofs, and with a thick neck and a very broad chest. -She cost ■her owner £5O, but now her price is above rubies.