INTELLIGENCE, POWER, 



captivity. The brain is the master organ. Throughout adult 

 life it does not change in weight. 



The Ass, the Mule, and the Shetland Pony 



Wishing to entrust valuable freight to its back, man 

 selected an animal that, by nature and breeding, possessed 

 a characteristic the very opposite of those of the thorough- 

 bred, namely, dependability. Man needed an animal that 

 was not easily frightened, that had less temperament 

 hence a lower relative amount of adrenal-sympathetic 

 tissue than the excitable thoroughbred. Therefore, man 

 bred the ass and the mule for carrying the load. 



The koulan or wild ass of the Mongols and the onager of 

 the ancients are held by many authorities to be the same 

 animal as the koulan still found on the steppes of Asia. So 

 highly are these animals endowed with energy and so 

 skillful are they in warding off danger with their hoofs that 

 wolves do not attack vigorous koulans. 



The progenitors of the present-day ass live in Africa and, 

 according to Brehm, are represented by two species, the 

 ass of the plains and the Somal ass, which is thought to be 

 a link between the Asiatic ass and the zebra. 



Like the koulan and the onager, the ass of the plains and 

 the Somal ass run in herds of about twenty, each herd 

 guarded by the leader, a stallion. The shy and wary ass 

 of the plains has been domesticated from earliest time, 

 wild specimens having been continually used to main- 

 tain the vigor of the breed. 



Of all the asses of the plains, the asses of Arabia, bred in 

 Jemen, are the most superior. One type is large and well 

 adapted to the use of the saddle; the other is small and 

 adapted to carrying burdens. 



The drier the soil and the more frugal the food, the 

 healthier the ass. The desert ass, like the desert horse and 

 the desert camel, does not require such a large amount of food 

 as do those animals in regions in which food is abundant. 



142 



