THE HORSE TRIBE 



97 



MALE KIANG 

 The kiang comes from the Tibetan highlands. It is the largest and most horse-like of the -wild asses of Asia 



range, but of woody plants on the high mountain-plateaux, where little else is to be obtained. 

 Of wild asses in general the late Sir Samuel Baker once said : " Those who have seen donkeys 

 only in their civilised state can have no conception of the wild or original animal; it is the 

 perfection of activity and courage." 



DOMESTICATED HORSE, ASSES, AND MULES 



BY W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S. 



THE DOMESTICATED HORSE 



LIKE the wild camels, genuine wild horses are very generally believed to be extinct. The 

 vast herds which occur to-day in a wild state in Europe, America, and Australia are to be 

 regarded, say those who believe in the extinction theory, as descended from domesticated 

 animals which have run wild. So far as the American and Australian horses are concerned, 

 this is no doubt true ; but of the European stocks it is by no means so certain. For 

 Dr. Nehring and he speaks with authority assures us that the wild horses known as 

 TARPANS, which occur on the steppes north of the Sea of Azoff, between the river Dnieper and 

 the Caspian, are veritable wild horses, the last remaining members of enormous herds which 

 occurred in Europe before the dawn of civilisation. These horses formed no small part of the 

 food of the savage races of men then inhabiting this continent. This we know because of the 

 quantities of their remains found in the caves of the south of France, for instance, associated 

 with the remains of the men who hunted them. Further evidence of this we have in the 

 shape of crude engravings on pieces of bone and deer horns, carved by the more artistic 

 spirits amongst these early hunters. From these drawings we gather that the horse they 

 hunted was small in size and heavy in build, with a large head and rough, shaggy mane and 



