THE ASS. 



223 



three of a doer ; head, leg, and skin : it must 

 have three of a wolf; throat, neck, and hear- 

 ing : it must have three of a fox ; car, tail, and 



trot : three of a serpent ; memory, sight, and 

 flexibility: and, lastly, three of a hare; run- 

 ning, walking, and perseverance." 1 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



OF THE ASS." 



ALTHOUGH this animal is very easily 

 distinguished from the horse at first sight, yet, 

 upon a closer inspection, the similitude between 

 them is very striking. They have both a 

 similar outline in the external parts ; the same 

 conformation within. One would be led, from 

 the great resemblance there is between them, 

 to suppose them of the same species ; and that 

 the ass was only a horse degenerated: however, 

 they are perfectly distinct, and there is an in- 

 separable line drawn between them, for the 

 mule they produce is barren. This seems to 

 be the barrier between every species of animals; 

 this keeps them asunder, and preserves the 

 unities of their form. If the mule, or the mon- 

 ster, bred between two animals, whose form 

 nearly approaches, is no longer fertile, we may 

 then conclude, that these animals, however re- 

 sembling, are of different kinds. Nature has 

 providently stopped the fruitfulness of these ill- 

 formed productions, in order to preserve the 

 form of every animal uncontaminated : were 

 it not for this, the races would quickly be mix- 

 ed with each other ; no one kind would pre- 

 serve its original perfection ; every creature 

 would quickly degenerate ; and the world 

 would be stocked with imperfection and de- 

 formity. 



The horse and the ass, therefore, though so 

 nearly approaching in form, are of two distinct 

 kinds, different in their natures ; and were 

 there but one of each kind, both races would 



It is a curious natural fact, that the horse has the sin- 

 gular property of breathing through the nostril only, and 

 not through the mouth ; for, in the severest exercise, the 

 mouth is never seen open, unless the lower jaw be brought 

 down violently by the force of the bit. This may account 

 for the great dilatation of the nostrils after hard running. 



In those vast desert regions, in the most southern parts 

 f Siberia, is found a horse differing in several particu- 

 lars from the common horse, already described. It is 

 said to live in small herds of about twenty each, having 



then be extinguished. Their shapes and their 

 habits may, indeed, be very nearly alike ; but 

 (here is something in every animal, besides its 

 conformation or way of life, that determines its 

 specific nature. Thus there is much greater 

 resemblance between the horse and the ass, 

 than between the sheep and the goat ; and yet 

 the latter produce an animal that is by no 

 means barren, but which quickly reproduces 

 an offspring resembling the sheep; while the 

 mule of the former is marked with certain ste- 

 rility. The goat and the sheep may be there- 

 fore said to be of one kind, although so much 

 unlike in figure ; while the horse and the ass 

 are perfectly distinct, though so closely resem- 

 bling. It has, indeed, been said by Aristotle, 

 that their male is sometimes prolific; this, how- 

 ever, has not been confirmed by any other tes- 

 timony, although there has elapsed a period of 

 near two thousand years to collect the evidence. 

 But what tends to put the subject out of dis- 

 pute, is, that the two animals are found in a 

 state of nature entirely different. The onager, 

 or wild ass, is seen in still greater abundance 

 than the wild horse ; and the peculiarities of its 

 kind are more distinctly marked than in those 

 of the tame one. Had it been a horse degene- 

 rated, the likeness would be stronger between 

 them, the higher we went to the original stock 

 from whence both have been supposed to be 

 sprung. The wild animals of both kinds 

 would, in such a case, resemble each other, 



the manners of the common wild horse, but far exceeding 

 it in swiftness. Its head is large, and forehead flat ; and 

 its teeth are only thirty-eight in number. But the most 

 singular mark of difference is, that the tail is slender, like 

 that of the cow, and destitute of hair for half its length; 

 the lower part only being covered with a long ash-coloured 

 hair. 



b Many parts of this account are extracted from Dau- 

 benton and Buffon ; which I mention here, to avoid trou- 

 bling the reader with a multiplicity of quotations. 



