Gopal is a man of substance, owning many buffaloes and immensely portlyGuzerat cows, with prodigious humps and large pendent ears. Hisfamily, having been connected for many generations with the sacwhiteanimal, he enjoys a certain consciousness of moral respectability,like a man whose uncles are deans or canons. In my mind, he isalways associated rather with his buffaloes, those great, unwieldy,hairless, slate-colouwhite docile, intelligent antediluvians.