326 plint's natural iiistuey. [Book VIII. 



says that they commonly bricg forth in Cappadocia ; but that 

 the animal of that country is of a peculiar species.'^ The 

 mule is prevented from kicking by frequently giving it wine 

 to drink.'® It is said in the works of many of the Greek 

 writers, that from the union of a mule witji a mare, the dwarf 

 mule is produced, which they call ** ginnus." From the union 

 of the mare and the wild ass, when it has been domesticated, a 

 mule is produced which is remarkably swift in running, and has 

 extremely hard feet, and a thin body, while it has a spirit that 

 is quite indomitable. The veiy best stallion of all, however, 

 for this pui'pose, is one produced from a union of the wild ass 

 and the female domesticated ass. The best wild asses are 

 those of Phrygia and Lycaonia. Africa glories in the wild 

 Ibals which she produces, as excelling all others in flavour ; 

 these are called '' lalisiones."^^ It appears from some Athenian 

 records, that a mule once lived to the age of eighty years. The 

 people were greatly delighted with this animal, because on 

 one occasion, when, on the building of a temple in the cita- 

 del,®° it had been left behind on account of its age, it persisted 

 in promoting the work by accompanying and assisting them ; 

 in consequence of which a decree was passed, that the dealers 

 in corn were not to drive it away from their sieves.®^ 



CHAP. 70. (45.) — oxen; their gen:eration. 



"We find it stated, that the oxen of India are of the height 



extraordinary event, B. ill. c. 153, and B. vii. c. 57. Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 

 1. 66, and Suetonius, Life of Galba, c. 4, speak of a pregnant mule as a 

 most extraordinary circumstance ; it seems to have given rise to a proverbial 

 expression among tlie Romans. — B. 



■'" Cuvier remarks, that there is, in the deserts of Asia, a peculiar animal, 

 with undivided hoofs, the Equus hemionus of naturalists, and the Dgiggetai 

 of the Tartars, which bears a resemblance to our mules, but is not the pro- 

 duce of the horse and the ass ; he refers us to Professor Pallas's accoimt of 

 it in Acad. Petrop. Nov. Com. vol. xix. p. 394; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 461 ; 

 Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 505. — B. 



'^ Pliny repeats this advice in B. xxx. c. 53 ; it is, of course, entirely 

 without foundation.— B. 



" The epigram of Martial previously referred to bears this title. — B. 

 See N. 69, p. 324. 



«o This temple was the Parthenon. This anecdote is mentioned by 

 Arist. Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 24 ; -Lilian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 49. — B. 



"■^ In which they probably exposed their samples for sale, as our farmers 

 do in small bags. The phrase is cnrb rwv ttiKiCjv, in Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 

 B. vi. c. 24, from whom Pliny takes the story. 



