THE GALLANT MULE 45 



surroundings, strange white faces, and the conditions imposed in a country at 

 war. They have been rehictant to step aboard ship on the other side, but, 

 when once packed in steep holds and breathing a gassy atmosphere, too pungent 

 for all humans — except callous and leather-lunged muleteers — they soon 

 become reconciled and contented to the point of being outraged and annoyed 

 when asked to quit again. The acme of perversity, you see, but nevertheless 

 quaintly characteristic. 



They vary, of course, in this regard. Some are so mournful and devoid of 

 expression, too unconscious of their own existence, that they climb the gangways 

 to the main deck and descend the " brow " to the shore with all the solemn good 

 sense and tractability in the world. They are the good mules that never want 

 to slip into wrong-doing, that take a cuff or a blow as unresponsively as they 

 do a mark of affection, that gaze vacantly on the shoeing-smith when he is 

 tinkering with their donkey feet, and only show a spark of consciousness when 

 they see food and are unable to reach it. The bad mule, not because he is 

 really wicked, does not like to be hurried, worried or interfered with if at the 

 psychological moment he happens to be feeling more like a donkey than a 

 horse, or, maybe, is concentrating on the vices of both and the virtues of 

 neither. He gets " worser and worser " and in the end will submit only to the 

 Jortiter in re rather than the suaviter in modo methods of those who from experi- 

 ence [have not come to meet him unequipped with a long rope and a breeching 

 with which to haul him among his tribe already on shore. At the moment he is 

 hating everybody and everything. He is distinctly nasty. He will kick 

 unkindly at his neighbour in that susceptible area between the fore and hind 

 legs. He may even endeavour to eat the rope by which he is being led, and 

 his new khaki-clad acquaintance has to admit that his heels have an uncom- 

 monly long reach. Nor are his forelegs to be ignored. A mule can box and 

 strike with them most unpleasantly. But in ninety cases out of a hundred he 

 is not always going to defy disciplinary methods, especially when quietness is 

 judiciously mixed with firmness. Never crack whips or shout with a sensitive 

 mule. He will only get worse. The foundation of all successful methods with 

 these uncertain tempered creatures is quietness. The man who makes a noise 

 does so because he is afraid of the mule and really hates him at sight. The 

 mule also hates him then and always. 



If this were anything more than a chapter of impressions gained at first 

 hand I might be expected to deal with the mule from a scientific point of view, 

 dwelling on his hybrid origin and the ban placed on him by nature to reproduce 

 his hke as a distinct species. One might enter on a vast field of conjecture as 

 to why there should be freakish colourings and markings and distinct sugges- 

 tions of the wild ass and zebra. The prevaihng colour of the tens of thousands 

 purchased on behalf of this country is brown, but you will also see a fair percen- 

 tage of bays, chestnuts, greys and duns, and an occasional " smoky blue." 

 Most of the duns and a few chestnuts have a strongly defined black fine running 

 the length of the neck and back right into the tail, with dark zebra-like bars 

 about the shoulders, knees and hocks. Some have had white legs, but they 

 have been very rare. 



Then you will be told on some authority that successful mule breeding 



