THE ASININE GROUP. 301 



shoulders is occasionally double. It is said of some 

 in Africa that they never drink ; they are known 

 to be in their food still more sober than horses, and 

 more easily satisfied with thistles and other thorny 

 plants : in their habits they are cleanly, and fond of 

 basking in the clean heated sand of the desert, where, 

 though they want not courage, vigilance, and speed, 

 they afford the common subsistence of the larger car- 

 nivora; for, in the absence of man, the lion, hyaena, 

 and lycaon, or marafeen, appear chiefly destined to 

 maintain the balance ; and where wild Equidae are 

 found in the South, one or more of these are sure to 

 be in their vicinity. 



In the ancient history of these animals, more 

 than one species appear to be confounded, and even 

 at present the differences between them are noi 

 satisfactorily cleared up, if not altogether overlooked 

 by travellers. In the earlier languages, zoological 

 names of animals which have been recently acquired 

 are commonly borrowed from others already fami- 

 liarly known, or from some fancied similarity which 

 after times seldom confirm ; thus the Romans applied 

 the name of Lucanian bull to the first elephant they 

 saw, and the South Sea islanders called the first 

 horse landed on their shores a pig or a great dog: 

 in Celebes, the horses now feral still bear, among 

 other native names, that of buffalo. Adjectives, as 

 names, are slow in acquiring a strictly defined mean- 

 ing; a carrier may still designate a pigeon or an 

 errand-man ; and thus the same epithet in Hebrew 

 was long applicable alike to a horse, an ass, the He- 



