THE niNNY. 347 



a cause of marvel, which the Oriental mode of 

 thinking is sure to embellish. It was no doubt in 

 Africa that the story arose, which was long credited 

 in Europe, and seemed to have influence even upon 

 Buffon, respecting a monstrous breed of hybrids be- 

 tween a bull and female ass, or a male ass and cow : 

 one author asserting that he had himself rode one in 

 Piedmont, and others that they occurred in the 

 valleys of the Pyrenees : the first mentioned variety, 

 it was said, bore the name of Baf or Bof, and the 

 second that of Bif. In France both were supposed 

 to be known by the appellation of Jumar, a word 

 clearly borrowed from one or other of the Arabic 

 dialects, Ahmar or Hymar, already noticed. In 

 Barbary, where this story is still believed, and per- 

 sons assert they have seen individuals of the mon- 

 ster form, we find, if they are all of the kind such 

 as a black specimen already mentioned, that it is 

 simply a hinny ; but the Western Arabs assert that 

 these animals are wild, and produce in proof of it 

 the species of horse we have described before under 

 the name bestowed upon it by them, namely, the 

 Koomrah; which having low withers, a bulky 

 body, and the forehead covered with a woolly fur, 

 has an equivocal appearance, perhaps sufficient to 

 have raised suspicion of a bovine intermixture so 

 early as to be the same animal which Herodotus 

 without a description has denominated Boryes. 



In concluding this essay on the Natural History 

 of Equid^, we beg to assure the reader, without 

 claiming his implicit assent to the mode of viewing 



