INDEX. 211 



Asphalt urn, an injection of petroleum and an application of 

 asphaltum suffice to make a mummy, ii. 133. 



Ass and horse, though nearly alike in form, are distinct kinds, 

 different in nature ; with only one of each kind, both races 

 would be extinguished; in the state of nature entirely diffe- 

 rent ; wild ass in greater abundance than the wild horse ; 

 wild ass and the zebra a different species ; countries where 

 the wild ass is found; some run so swift, few coursers can. 

 overtake them ; caught with traps ; taken chiefly for their 

 flesh and skins, which make that leather called shagreen ; 

 entertainment of wild asses in Persia seen by Olearius; the 

 delicacy of its flesh a proverb there ; Galen deems it un- 

 wholesome ; asses originally imported into America by the 

 Spaniards, have run wild, and multiplied to such numbers 

 as to be a nuisance ; chase of them in the kingdom of Quito ; 

 have all the swiftness of horses ; declivities and precipices 

 do not retard their career ; after the first load, their celerity 

 leaves them, their dangerous ferocity lost, and they contract 

 the stupid look and dullness peculiar to the assinine species ; 

 will not permit a horse to live among them ; always feed 

 together; and a horse straying where they graze, they fall 

 upon, and bite and kick him till he be dead ; their prefe- 

 rence of the plantain to any other vegetable ; they drink as 

 soberly as they eat, and never dip the nose into the stream ; 

 fear to wet their feet, and turn out to avoid the dirty parts 

 of a road; show no ardour but for the female, and often 

 die after covering ; scent an owner at a distance, and dis- 

 tinguish him in a crowd ; with eyes covered, they will not 

 stir a step ; when laid down, one eye covered with the grass, 

 and the other hidden with a stone, or other contiguous 

 body, they will not stir, or attempt to rise, to get free from 

 impediments ; several brought up to perform, and exhibited 

 at a show ; suffered to dwindle every generation, and parti- 

 cularly in England ; bulk for bulk, an ass stronger than a 

 horse, and surer footed ; also less apt to start than the 

 horse ; more healthy than the horse ; Persians cleave their 

 nostrils to give more room for breathing ; Spaniards alone 

 know the value of the ass ; the Spanish jack-ass above fif- 

 teen hands high ; the ass originally a native of Arabia ; 

 warm climates produce the largest and best ; entirely lost 

 among us during the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; Holling- 

 shed pretends our land yields no asses, yet they were com- 

 mon in England before that time ; in Sweden they are a sort 

 of rarity; by the last history of Norway, they had not 

 reached that country ; in Guinea they are larger and more 

 beautiful than the horses of that country ; in Persia are two 

 kinds ; some sold for forty or fifty pounds ; no animal cover- 

 ed with hair less subject to vermin ; lives till twenty or 

 twenty-five; sleeps less than the horse, and never lies 



