OBSERVATIONS ON THE WILD ASS. Ill 



glimpse they had of it, was an antelope. I instantly put 

 spurs to my horse, and followed by Sedak Beg and the meh- 

 mandar*, followed the chase. After an unrelaxed gallop of 

 full three miles, we came up with the dog, who was within 

 a short stretch of the creature he pursued ; and to my sur- 

 prise, and at first, vexation, I saw it to be an ass ; but, on a 

 moment's reflection, judging from its fleetness, it must be a 

 wild one, a species little known in Europe, but which the 

 Persians prize above all other animals as an object of chase. 

 I determined to approach as near to it as the very swift Arab 

 I was on would carry me. But the single instant of check- 

 ing my horse to consider, had given our game such a head of 

 us, that notwithstanding all our speed, we could not recover 

 our ground on him. I, however, happened to be considerably 

 before my companions, when, at a certain distance, the ani- 

 mal in its turn made a pause, and allowed me to approach 

 within pistol-shot of him. He then darted off again with 

 the quickness of thought, capering, kicking, and sporting in 

 his flight, as if he were not blown in the least, and the chase 

 were his pastime. 



u He appeared to me to be about ten or twelve hands high ; 

 the skin smooth, like a deer's, and of a reddish colour ; the 

 belly and hinder parts partaking of a silvery grey ; his neck 

 was finer than that of a common ass, being longer, and bend- 

 ing like a stag's, and his legs beautifully slender ; the head 

 and ears seemed large in proportion to the gracefulness of 

 these forms, and by them I first recognised that the object of 

 my chase was of the ass tribe. The mane was short and 

 black, as was also a tuft which terminated his tail. No line 

 whatever ran along his back, or crossed his shoulders, as are 

 seen on the tame species with us. When my followers of the 

 country came up, they regretted I had not shot the creature 

 when he was so within my aim, telling me his flesh is one of 

 the greatest delicacies in Persia ; — but it would not have been 

 to eat him that I should have been glad to have had him in 

 my possession. The prodigious swiftness and peculiar man- 

 ner with which he fled across the plain, coincided exactly 

 with the description that Xenophon gives of the same animal 

 in Arabia, (vide Anabasis, lib. i.)f . But, above all, it reminded 



* " Accompanied by my Persian provider (that being the real import 

 of the name ' Mehmandar.')" — Ibid, page 203, vol. i. 



f And of the wild animals, the greatest number were wild asses, but 

 there were also many ostriches ; and there were in that country (Arabia) 

 both bustards and antelopes ; and our horsemen used sometimes to pursue 

 .these wild animals ; and when pursued the asses would run forward and 

 then stand still, (for they run much faster than a horse) ; and when the 



