HORSE. 



783 



dispersion of the troop, which affords additional facility 

 for the destruction of the individuals which com- 

 pose it. The Mongols, the Touguses, and other 

 nations in the vicinity of the Great Desert, esteem 

 the flesh of these animals as delicate food ; and, 

 therefore, they hunt them for the purpose of eating 

 their flesh. Though taken when very young, the 

 dziggitai has not yet been tamed by these nations, nor 

 does it appear very likely that they will ever be able 

 to do this, for some of the animals have actually 

 killed themselves by the shackles which have bound 

 them, rather than endure the restraint. It is the 

 opinion of Pallas, however, that underproper manage- 

 ment, the taming of the dziggitai is practicable, and 

 we cannot doubt but that he is correct ; for we do 

 not believe that there is any animal on the face of the 

 earth which may not be brought to a certain degree of 

 domestication. It would certainly be a most desirable 

 object to have these animals reduced to a state of 

 subjection ; for no animals in the world would make 

 better ponies. 



The tract of country which these animals inhabit 

 is one which must, from its locality, have very peculiar 

 characters ; but it so happens, that it is the portion 

 of Asia, we may almost say of the whole eastern con- 

 tinent, with which we have the least acquaintance ; it 

 extends from 70 to 120 east longitude, and the pa- 

 rallel of 45, or the latitude answering to the south of 

 France, passes nearly through the middle of it. It is 

 bounded every where by mountains, and no river flows 

 out of it to the south or the west ; and those which 

 flow to the north and east, flow but very short distances 

 across it. Towards the west it is divided into three 

 portions, by chains of mountains lying south-west 

 and north-east, the little Alti on the north, the great 

 Alti next southward, and the Musart mountains fur- 

 ther to the south, and then the mountains of Thibet 

 form its southern boundary. The three divisions of 

 it are between four hundred and five hundred miles 

 each ; and the central division, which occupies the 

 whole breadth toward the east, is more than two 

 thousand five hundred miles in length, and at least 

 eight hundred in its greatest breadth. Thus it is a 

 very lara;e country ; and though the rivers all rise in 

 the mountains, and descend towards the intervening 

 spaces, where they are in general lost in the sand, or 

 evaporated by the high temperature of a rainless 

 atmosphere, yet it is understood that those level por- 

 tions form a table land of great elevation, though how 

 many feet above the level of the sea has not been 

 ascertained. 



This is, in its physical circumstances, perhaps the 

 most singular country on the face of the globe ; and 

 with the exception of vast numbers of burrowing 

 rodentia. which swarm in the northern parts of it, the 

 dzitrgitai is one of its most peculiar and characteristic 

 inhabitants, and seems to be, more than any other 

 animal with which we are acquainted, an inhabitant 

 of the desert, and fitted for its habitation. It is never 

 found in the forests or on the mountains, whether 

 they are rocky or clad with snow, but keeps to the 

 open and thirsty plains upon which there is no vege- 

 tation but tufts of herbaceous plants scattered widely 

 apart from each other. Thus, in order to procure 

 subsistence, it requires that extreme swiftness of foot 

 to which we have alluded ; and as the extremes o 

 summer and winter in such a country must be great 

 the seasonal changes of its coat fit it admirably for 

 enduring them. The season of heat is about the cnt 



of August ; and the foala are dropped in the spring, 

 _enerally only one at a birth ; and they are full grown 

 at the age of three years. In consequence of the 

 extreme shyness and fleetness of the animal, as well 

 as of our ignorance of its country, our knowledge of 

 ts habits is but limited. It is ascertained, however, 

 hat it can travel a hundred miles or upward without 

 ;asting water ; and also that it can bear hunger for a 



g time. It is, however, an animal of wild nature 

 only ; though from the circumstances that we have 

 mentioned, it is a very interesting one. Some idea 

 may be formed of the energy of its character from 

 the fact, that in the wild mythologies of the hordes 

 which inhabit the borders of those deserts, it is the 

 animal on which the god of fire is supposed to ride 

 he scorning all others as too slow for his purposes. 



This animal must not be confounded with the wild 

 ass of the same part of the world ; for the two do not 

 inhabit the same places, the wild ass being nearer the 

 inhabited countries than this animal, and far less swift 

 in its motion. They are at once distinguished by the 

 superior symmetry of this animal, and by the voice. 

 The wild ass brays, while the dziggitai neighs, in 

 tones more loud and clear than those of the horse ; 

 and as is the case with horses, the different members 

 of the herd of those animals evince a very great 

 attachment for each other ; and as their fleetness pro- 

 tects them against all their human foes, they live in 

 the wide solitude of their mountain-encircled deserts, 

 in a state of perfect peace with all the rest of the 

 living world, the members of which, indeed, are few 

 and far between in the places which they inhabit. 



THE QUAGGA (E. Quaccha] is an African species, 

 and very abundant in the territory of the Cape, where 

 it is found in large herds, especially in the interior of 

 the country ; and it is by no means so shy as the 

 species last described, neither is it so fleet. It is also 

 a much smaller animal, not standing above three feet 

 nine inches at the shoulder. Its tail resembles that 

 of the ass, or rather, perhaps, that of the cow, as in 

 the last mentioned species ; but it appears to be as 

 nearly allied to the horse as to the ass, though per- 

 fectly distinct from both. Its figure is very light, 

 its head and ears small, and its hoofs cylindrical. Its 

 colours are, the head and neck deep blackish brown, 

 streaked with greyish white, the streaks being length- 

 ways on the forehead and temples, crossways on the 

 cheeks, and forming triangles, or rather cheverons, on 

 the space between the eyes and nose. The ground 

 colour of the body is clear brown on the back, becom- 

 ing paler on the sides, and passing into pure white in 

 the middle of the under part ; while in the middle of 

 the upper, there is a dorsal line of black, extending 

 from the tail to the mane, and the mane is black. 

 There are along each side of the neck ten bands of 

 the same whitish colour as those on the temples. 

 Their cry is different from that of both the horse and 

 ass. Some have compared it to the barking of a dog, 

 and the name quagga is also understood to be an 

 imitation of it, though tHe word couaay perhaps comes 

 nearer to it. 



The quagga bears some resemblance to the domes- 

 ticated horse in manners as well as in form. It is a 

 spirited little animal, and repels the attacks of such 

 animals as the hyaena, but it is at the same time easily 

 . domesticated, and a willing servant, and not weak, 

 considering its size. There have been instances of 

 carriages drawn by quaggas in the neighbourhood of 

 London ; and though there has not, perhaps, been so 



