316 THE DOMESTIC ASS. 



useful and handsome race might be reared, valu- 

 able to the poorer settler, and instrumental in work- 

 ing out the civilization of the natives. * 



It is singular that the wild ass of Tahtary should 

 be able to resist a temperature of climate in winter 

 more severe than that of Norway, where the do- 

 mestic is with difficulty maintained ; and if they 

 be the same species, that the African should be dif- 

 ferent in manners, still more handsome in form, be 

 the parent of the best domestic breeds, and deterio- 

 rate gradually towards the east, till it ceases to be 

 found even domesticated beyond the Bramaputra. 

 Egypt, Barbary, then Spain, the south of France, 

 and part of Italy, produce, with the exception of 

 Arabia, the finest asses ; but in the last mentioned 

 region there is the Zobeir Albino breed, apparently 

 as ancient as the times of the kings of Judah, and 

 still in equal request : it was the vehicle of princes 

 in antiquity, and even now is reserved for the grave 

 personages of Islam law and priesthood. 



If the Romans were not the importers of the first 

 asses in Britain, it was most likely effected by the 

 monks before they adopted the luxuries of feudal 

 proprietors ; hence they are noticed in the time of 

 King Ethelred, as quoted by Pennant ; t but they 

 cannot have been naturalized, since, in the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth, if Holinshed may be credited, 



* A choice breed of asses, and of Arabian camels, appears 

 to be an object well worthy the attention of the local govern- 

 ments of Australia and New Zealand. 



f British Zoology, article Ass. 



