312 THE ONAGER. 



Lalisiones were extolled as delicious food for the 

 tables of epicures, appears to be the same species, 

 slightly differing in colour. * The species is said to 

 have once been found in the Canary Islands ; it is 

 mentioned by Leo and Mannol, occurs on the Nile, 

 above the cataracts, and is abundant in the upland 

 plains, between the table hills below Gous Regein 

 and the Bahar-el-Abiad in Atbara.t It is most 

 likely that which we find figured among the paint- 

 ings of ancient Egypt in the yoke of a chariot, and 

 we have already represented ; agreeing in all respects 

 excepting the ears, which may have been cropped at 

 the time that its sexual character was likewise 

 annihilated. We have seen a pair of these animals 

 brought from Cairo ; they were equal in size to an 

 ordinary mule, neatly if not elegantly formed, white 

 in colour, but silvery grey oil the ridge of the back 

 and nose, with the forehead, nock, and sides of a 

 beautiful pale ash with a tinge of purple, the mane, 

 tail, and cruciform streak black. 



Both the stocks of Eastern Asia and of Africa 

 were confounded by the Romans, and generally by 

 them named Onager : of one or both Varro remarked 

 that they were easily tamed, and the domestic ass 



* Pliny says those of Africa were esteemed the best for the 

 table : 



" Cum tener est Onager, solaque Lalisio matre 

 Pascitur : hoc infans, sed breve nomen habet." 



MART. xiii. 97. 



t See Voyage on the Bahar-el-Abiad by Adolphe Linant, 

 and Hoskins^s Travels in Ethiop : a. 



