ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 217 



Hebrew writers for swiftness and spirit in the wild. It appears 

 that he has suffered .by comparison with the horse, of which he 

 is instinctively regarded as a sort of poor relation. The Spanish 

 people, however, have continued in their esteem of this useful 

 animal, and it is to them that we owe the excellent quality of 

 our modern stock, particularly as regards size, spirit, and finish. 



It requires but the slightest contact with this peculiar relative 

 of the horse to discover that anything like low spirits and inac- 

 tivity are the result partly of poor feed and partly of an excessive 

 suspicion of all new things and an exaggerated disposition not 

 to run away like the horse, but to stop and investigate ; indeed, 

 curiosity is one of his principal faculties. As to intellect, he is 

 easily underrated, for he is fully the equal of the horse, his 

 stupidity being apparent and not real, like that of the ox. 



The excessively long ears and large bone of the modern ass 

 are the distinguishing features of the African stock, whereas the 

 Asiatic has short ears, is lighter in limb, and so swift in action 

 that it is said to be impossible for the hunter to run one of them 

 down even with the best of mounts. 



In connection with the domesticated horse and ass another 

 group of closely related wild animals must be mentioned, the 

 zebra (Equus zebra) and the quagga (Equus quaggd). These 

 strange horselike animals, in most respects nearer like the ass 

 than the horse, exist in some three or four well-marked and 

 more or less distinct races, all native to southern Africa. 



The true zebra is smaller (twelve to thirteen hands) 1 than 

 either the horse or the ass, lives in the highlands, and is 

 covered on both body and legs with a beautifully complete 

 system of black stripes on a background of dirty white. 2 The 



1 A " hand " is four inches, and is the universal unit for measuring the 

 height of horses. This height is taken at the withers or shoulders, at what 

 would be the highest point of the body when the animal is standing with his 

 head down, as in grazing. 



2 Suggesting the reason for the ancient name " hippotigris," — hippo (horse) 

 and tigris (tiger), — a name similar in make-up to "camelopard" (camel leopard) 

 for the giraffe. 



