ORIGIN OF THE DONKEY. 785 



there being only twelve of them to 415,060 hoi-ses in the coldest and 

 most mountainous government of that country. 



We do not know when they were introduced into China ; but it is 

 related that the Emperor Ling-ti (168-189) made them fashionable at 

 his court instead of horses. The Abbe Hue says that they thrive in 

 Thibet and the northern provinces of China. It is, however, certain 

 that they were not domesticated by the Proto-Mongols, the ancestors 

 of the Chinese, in Northern Mongolia ; and there appear to be few or 

 none of them now in that country ; for travelers speak of large 

 flocks of sheep, goats, cows, camels, and horses, but never mention 

 asses. 



There is no probability that the Aryans were better acquainted 

 with this animal in their original home than the Proto-Mongols in 

 theirs. The ass is not among the animals offered in sacrifice by the 

 heroes of the Avesta, and is only mentioned once in that book. At the 

 time the Mazdean law was given, the Iranians were in possession of 

 Northern Persia, where the ass had been introduced, and had been cap- 

 tured by Tiglath-pileser I. 



The ass was taken to India very early, and the law of Menu leaves 

 no doubt of the antiquity of its use among the Hindoos. It, for exam- 

 ple, prohibits a Brahman from reading on an ass ; declares that the 

 Chandelas and Swapakas shall have no property but dogs and asses ; 

 and orders Dija, who had broken his vow of chastity, to sacrifice a 

 dark or black ass to Niwiti, and to wear its skin, begging for a year, 

 and confessing his sin, in seven houses every day. 



Asses appear to have been in use among the Hebrews from the time 

 of Abraham ; in Assyria and the neighboring countries from the time 

 of Tiglath-pileser I, and in Greece from the time of Hesiod, who men- 

 tions the custom of castrating mules ; and Homer compares the rage 

 of Ajax with that of an ass rushing wildly through the fields. The 

 great Harris papyrus, describing one of the conquests of Rameses, 

 speaks of the chiefs of Tonoutu as arriving at Coptos with their tribes, 

 and bringing with them caravans of asses and men. In the same doc- 

 ument, Menephthah I, relating his victory over the Mashonash and 

 the Libyans, describes the " vile chief of the Rebu " as losing all his 

 goods and precious things, and " everything that he had brought with 

 him from his country, his cattle, his goats, and his asses." 



The most ancient instances of the application of asses to useful pur- 

 poses were in Egypt. A bas-relief in a hypogeum of Gizeh, of the 

 date of the fourth dynasty, represents two droves of asses ; and M. 

 Lenormant remarks : " As to the ass, we see it figured on the Egyp- 

 tian tombs as far back as we go. It is frequently represented in the 

 tombs of the ancient empire, at Gizeh, Sakkara, and Abousir. The 

 beautiful bas-relief on the tomb of Ti (fifth dynasty), representing a 

 group of asses, of which a model was exhibited by M. Mariette at the 

 Universal Exposition of 186T, has certainly not been forgotten. From 



VOL. XXII. 50 



