306 THE YO-TO-TZE. 



three or four cross streaks very distinctly marked 

 over the knees and hocks, the cannon joints brown 

 and the fetlock and pasterns down to the hoofs 

 black, the hoofs and hide dark, the eyes brown." 

 The groom informed us that its voice was a kind of 

 horse neigh ; terminating with a roar like the lower 

 tones of an ass's braying. There were on the back 

 two white marks evidently the effects of a saddle, 

 attempts having no doubt been made to ride it in 

 India ; where the sons of grandees are very com- 

 monly placed on the backs of ponies, young stags, 

 hinds, little oxen, and even sheep. There was an 

 appearance of considerable docility in its manners, 

 which induced the groom to throw his leg across its 

 back and canter up the stable yard ; the man was 

 certainly much heavier than the beast he rode, but 

 it took him along to the end, and then with a wild 

 fling pitched him on a dunghill, and came back at 

 a trot, stopping by us with perfect gentleness. We 

 were here again told that it came from some part 

 of Chinese Tahtary. 



Notwithstanding the striking difference of the 

 head, tail, livery, stature, and voice, we doubted 

 this individual being merely a variety of the Onager 

 or Djiggetai, until we saw living specimens of the^e 

 animals, when there appeared sufficient reason to 

 regard the Equuleus as distinct and identical with 

 the Yo-to-tze of China, provided that in that country 

 not more than one species is included under the 

 name. Should the wild ass of the Deccan in Cen- 

 tral India, described by Colonel Sykes as not larger 



