230 Wild Ass. 
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 animal 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. 
«© He appeared to me to be about ten or twelve hands high ; 
the skin smooth, like adeer’s, and of a reddish colour ; the helly 
and hinder parts partaking of a silvery grey ; his neck was finer 
than that of a common ass, being longer, and bending 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 termi- 
nated 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 
manner with which he fled across the plain, coincided exactly 
with the description that Xenophon gives of the same animal in 
Arabia (vide Anabasis, b.i.). But, above all, it reminded me of 
the striking portrait drawn by. the author of the book of Job. I 
shall venture to repeat it, since the words will give life and action 
to the sketch that is to accompany these pages. 
«¢ © Who hath loosed the bonds of the wild ass ? whose house 
I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings ! _ 
He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the 
crying of the driver. The range of the mountain is his pasture.’ 
<< [ was informed by the Mehmander, who had been in the De- 
sert when making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Ali, that the 
wild ass of Irak Arabi differs in nothing from the one I had just 
seen. He had observed them often, for a short time, in the pos- ' 
session of the Arabs, who told him the creature was perfectly un- 
tameable.: A few days after this discussion, we saw another of 
these animals, and, pursuing it determinately, had the good for- 
tune, after a hard chase, to kill it and bring it to our quarters. 
From it { completed my sketch. ‘The Honourable Mountstuart 
Elphinstone, in his most admirable account of the kingdom of 
Cabul, 
