THE KOOMRAH. 205 



Hinny^ which we shall mention when we treat of 

 mules, was pretended to be that monster. In truth, 

 the Koomrah and Hinny are sufficiently similar to 

 serve the purpose of an imposture, or of a wonder 

 among the vulgar ; but the first is a wild animal, 

 the second a scarce result of domestication. The 

 name Kootnrah may be a Mograbin adaptation of 

 the Arab Ahmar^ Koh-ahmar in Bereber, mountain 

 horse, to the Negro term Koomri^ one denoting a wild 

 Equine, the other a colour, white, as applicable to 

 the snowy ridge south of the Niger named the 

 Koomri mountains, where the animal is likewise 

 found. 



Among the wonder-loving Arabs and Shelluhs, 

 the Hippotaurine Koomrah is of course believed to 

 be not unfrequently met with, not as a wild, but as 

 a domestic animal; occasionally a dwarf kind of 

 Hinny is shown as such, and hence there are greys, 

 which then answer the descriptions of some travel- 

 lers and correspond with the meaning of the Negro 

 word Koomri ; and as we are informed by a friend, 

 there are others of a black colour, one of which he 

 saw, when it was on the way to Constantinople, a 

 present from the sovereign of Morocco to the Grand 

 Seignor. 



Of the wild and real Koomrah we have seen a 

 living specimen in England, and the skin of ano- 

 ther ; the first came from Barbary, the second died 

 on board a slave-ship on the passage from the coast 

 of Guinea to the West Indies in 1798, the skin, 

 legs, and head having been carefully preserved by 



