302 THE ASININE GROUP. 



mionus, and perhaps a dromedary ; hence, what has 

 been translated an ass in Isaiah and Herodotus, or 

 actually so named in Pliny, Strabo, and Arnobius, 

 may in some cases, with good reason, be regarded as 

 applicable only to the Hemionus. Thus, where 

 asses are made to draw chariots for war and peace 

 by the Caramanians, and even the Scythians; and 

 again, in the painted sculptures of Egypt, where 

 chariots occur drawn by short -eared animals, which 

 nevertheless have the cross on the shoulders, asinine 

 tails, and in stature equal the figures of horses, we 

 must refer them, not to the small thick-headed 

 Hamar of the desert or Ghoor of Persia, but to the 

 Onager, or to the Hemionus, which we shall see is 

 still domesticated in some parts of India.* 



It is no doubt to these larger and nobler animals 

 that respect was paid in the earlier ages as types of 

 abstract ideas. The Arabs had an asinine divinity 

 named Yauk, and Tartak, one of the gods of the 

 Avim, was most likely figured like an Onager; 

 though it may be suspected that several of these 

 animal forms were not personifications but attri- 

 butes or companions of deities, similar to those we 

 still find figured behind Indian idols. To the voice 

 of the wild ass repeated allusion is made in the 

 Scriptures, and that of the prophet crying in the 

 wilderness, has reference to the impression which 

 the solitary cry of the tenant of the desert creates 

 en the mind of human wanderers when traversing 

 his haunts. It is even doubtful whether the belief 

 * See wood-cut at the head of this article. 



