314 THE DOMESTIC ASS. 



haps even as far as Beloochistan in India, may be 

 chiefly derived ; though not unmixed, for towards 

 the east, the cross on the shoulders is most frequently 

 wanting. AVhether the foregoing be of one original 

 species or of several, certain it is, that both the 

 African and Persian may be traced in the domesti- 

 cated species, and that a small insignificant animal, 

 as compared with the present Arabian ass, is already 

 found figured among the earlier pictures of ancient 

 Egypt. * 



THE DOMESTIC ASS.+ 

 Asimis domesticus. 



It may be questioned whether both the wild ass 

 and the Hemionus have not contributed towards 

 the formation of the domestic breeds. Aristotle 

 and Pliny assert the advantage of crossing the 

 tame animal with the wild, and neither seem to 

 have been aware that there were two species in 

 their time still wandering free in Syria; indeed, 

 Sir R. Kerr Porter's wild ass may be a deteriorated 

 race of Hemionus, and have partly furnished the ru- 

 fous small breeds, and the African the large bluish. 

 The domestic ass, if not of this parentage, is then a 

 mixed breed between the African and Persian, 



* At Beni-Hassan. 



t Borello^ Arabic ; Bouriqtie, French ; Tusandunt of the 

 Slielkihs J Pico in ancient Egypt. 



