ORDER PERISSODACTYLA ! ODD-TOED UNGULATES 361 



According to Pallas (1780, pp. 259-273), Onagers are found in 

 the mountains about Kasbin at all times of the year. The Persians 

 seek to take them alive in pitfalls, driving them toward these spots. 

 The young ones captured alive are sold for a considerable price for 

 the studs of the nobles. From the mating of these tame Onagers there 

 is derived the fine race of riding asses in Persia and Arabia. They 

 are clearly distinguished from the sorry race of ordinary asses that 

 are used for carrying burdens. The bile is esteemed among the 

 Persians as a remedy for obscure vision and for cataract. 



Hablizl writes (1783, pp. 93-94) that the Wild Ass is frequently 

 seen in herds in the valleys of the mountains about Kasbin. Yet it 

 is reckoned among the rarest animals in all Persia, being known to 

 most of the inhabitants only by name. It is captured only to be 

 presented to some Khan, who has it kept as a mere rarity. In a few 

 months it becomes completely tame, more especially if it has been 

 caught while young. 



"In the eastern provinces of Persia . . . their venison is highly 

 prized, and the chase of them, from the time of Rustum to the 

 present, has always been held the pastime of heroes and princes" 

 (Hamilton Smith, 1841, pp. 309-310) . 



Blanford writes (1876, p. 85) : "In Persia they appear ... to be 

 common in some places, generally on the borders of desert plains, 

 rare or unknown elsewhere; but they occur scattered over all the 

 more level parts of the country, except in the North-western and 

 Caspian provinces. I saw none during my journey, though I often 

 came across their tracks." 



To this St. John adds (in Blanford, 1876, pp. 85-86) : "All of 

 twenty or more specimens that I have seen from Western Persia were 

 undoubtedly E. onager .... The Persian wild ass is not, I 

 believe, found west of the main road from Tehran to Shiraz, except 

 possibly in that arm of the salt desert which extends north of Korn- 

 . . . towards Saveh. It is most plentiful in the vicinity of the 

 patches of salt desert, 'Kafah' or 'Kavir/ which are so marked a 

 character of Eastern Persia. In the summer a herd occasionally 

 wanders into the loftier desert valleys. I have several times seen 

 them whilst travelling post along the plain that stretches from 

 Khan-i-Khora, a short distance north of Dehbid, in Fars, to the 

 Kulah Kazi or Urchin Hills, near Isfahan, a distance of nearly 150 

 miles, at an elevation of 5500 to 7000 feet above the sea. Persians 

 say that they can not be caught by a single horseman when ap- 

 proached in the open; but if the sportsman can manage to conceal 

 himself and his horse in the vicinity of a spring, and wait until the 

 wild asses have quenched their thirst, they can readily be come up 

 with when full of water, by a short spurt on a fast horse. At other 

 times they are caught in relays of horsemen and greyhounds. The 



