598 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Tlie Arabian Nights story of a conversation overheard be- 

 tween the ox and the ass shows the estimation in which he was 

 held ; and it is written that Mohammed himself had two asses, 

 one of which was called Yafur, nor did that great man disdain to 

 ride double. But here in India, by formal prescription, only the 

 gypsy, the potter, the washerman, and such-like folk, out-caste 

 or of low caste, will mount or own the ass. This prescription. 



Fig. 1. — The Potter and his Donkey. 



and the ridiculous Hindu association of the donkey with the 

 goddess of small-pox, account for the universal dislike and dis- 

 dain in which this most useful, sagacious, and estimable animal 

 is held. He is never fed by his owners, and his chronic hunger 

 is mocked by a popular saying that to feed a donkey is neither 

 sin nor sacrifice. 



It would seem difficult to be cruel to a goat, but the keepers of 

 the flocks of milch-goats regularly driven morning and evening 

 into Indian cities contrive to inflict a good deal of pain. The 

 nipples of the udder are tied up in torturing fashion, and there is 

 an unnecessary use of the staff. But the worst cruelty is the prac- 

 tice of flaying them alive, in the belief that skins thus prepared 

 have a better quality. The magistrates in the Presidency towns 



