74 ^'^ ^^-^ Onager of the Ant tents y 



or colts of the wild breed, the breed of mules, fo nfeful for 

 carrying burdens, would alio be much improved. Varro and 

 other anticnt authors, who treat of agriculture and the breed- 

 ing of cattle, imaninioufly affert that, in their time, the beft 

 mules were produced from a mare and the on;i<rer, or wild afs. 

 The Perfian mule^;, tlie Itrength and courage of which are 

 extolled by Le Brayn *, are in all probability produced in the 

 fame n.anner. Thefe qualities, pcrhaj)s, niisiht be obtained in 

 a liigher degree if the cljhiggctai, or grealt Mogul wild afs, 

 which exceeds the onager in fize and beauty f, and perhaps 

 alfo in Heetnefs, could be once tamed, and employed for this 

 purpolc. 



The wild afs, in its habits and mode of life, approaches 

 near to the djhigget. i and wild horfe. They rove about in 

 herds, which confili of young colts of both fexes, under the 

 protection of a ftallion. The fame account is given by 

 Oppian and Pliny, and by thofe who have copied them. 

 But it appears that at the periods of theirmigration the ftal- 

 lion lays afide his jealoufy, and feveral herds then unite to- 

 gether. The ieafon of covering is then pall, and the females 

 are big with young; yet the (lallions, even then, are accuf- 

 tomed to bite and kick each other very much. 



Their hearing and fight are fo acute, and the weather is fo 

 fine, that in the open fields it is not pofiible to approach 

 them. The Kirgifians, therefore, endeavour to conceal them- 

 felves in the ditlrids through which they pafs, or in the 

 neighbourhood of the fait lakes, which they frequent; but 

 the i(7</c//5 feldoni drink, and often not in the courfe of two 

 days. The al's which I had in my poffeflion frequently ab- 

 ftaiued from drinking for two davs, and in particular when 

 a heavy dew, or light (liower of rain, had fallen. She was 



' Le B'U\n lays in Ins Travels above quoted, p. 13^. that in the fouth- 

 ern parts cf Perfin there are mules wh'ch, from natural inftinft, like Tome 

 ipirittd horfcs, anJ the ftailions amonj; the wild horfes, attack bears and 

 ot'.ier ravtTiOUs anim.ils with great courage, and knock thcro down with 

 their fore-fect. The unfortunate fwine, which in thcfe diitrifts are black, 

 and covered with very rough biililLS, fail foinetimes a facrifice to this im- 



- puife of the nniles, which are not alwavs able to ditunguiih them from dan- 

 gerous animals. A circumftaiict of a fimilar kind is mentioned by Varro, 

 lib. ii. c. o: — " 1 once fawthe horfe of a Calmuc Tartar, while the rider 

 was oij his back, rufli into a field and kill a breeding l)uftaid, which he, 

 no dcobt, took for fome favajje animal." This kind of inftindt fecms to. 

 be common alio to the wild afics, which, according to the account given 

 bv the Kiriiifians, attack wild animnls in a body. When one of them (A- 

 lerves a fnnke, it immediately gives the fignal by a loud cry ; upon which 

 all the reCt aflemble, and ef.cn of them tries which ill. II llift deftroy the 

 dani;erous reptile. They do the fame in rejjaid to fuch ravenous animaU 



'as they are able to overcome; but the tiger is too much for them. 



■\ I'or a del'cription cf this ariilnal fee FliiJcfopliical Magazine, vol. ii. 



fonder 



