446 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



long-enduring mothers. The small foals are then caught and slung 

 upon a camel, in the same nets that are used for transporting the 

 camel calves when too young to follow on the march. 



The nature of the wild ass defies all attempts at breaking it 

 for domestic use. It is kept specially for breeding, as the cross 

 with the ordinary donkey produces a superior animal, which is 

 highly prized by the Arab sheiks of the great desert. 



The wild ass is found at so great a distance from water that 

 the Arabs declare it only requires to drink every third day. I 

 can readily believe this, as it is extraordinary to observe in 

 countries of great thirst how animals adapt themselves to the 

 necessities of their localities. During the dry season, between 

 Sofi, on the Atbara river, and Kadarif, there is a long interval 

 without water, although the land is rich and fertile during the 

 rains. The cattle march 25 and 30 miles to the river, and during 

 the dry months they drink only upon alternate days. When we 

 see the fact established among domestic animals, we may readily 

 accept the Arab's accounts of desert creatures, which have been 

 born under conditions that could hardly be supported except by 

 those whose progenitors had been inured to similar hardships and 

 necessities. 



The first and last time that I ever disturbed wild asses was in 

 1861, when, after a most arduous chase through the desert in the 

 hottest season of the year, I shot a male. This was a large and 

 beautiful specimen, much more like a very large zebra without the 

 colouring, than a donkey. It was about 14 hands at the withers, 

 which were as usual low ; the hoofs were exceedingly large, in no 

 way resembling the contracted foot of the domestic species. The 

 colour was a deep cream, with a tinge of strawberry upon the back ; 

 a black line along the spine and across the withers. The eyes were 

 beautiful, exceedingly large and bright. 



I was sorry to have shot this harmless animal, but it had a 

 glorious revenge. On the following day I was prostrated with sun 

 fever and violent indigestion, having dined off asinine cottlettes 

 from my new specimen of a male wild ass. From the dryness, 

 toughness, flavourless and impossible character of the flesh, I could 

 well imagine that this hardy offspring of the desert had never 

 drunk water, nor had had anything to eat except wood, hot dust, 

 and porphyry, and that it had existed upon this food for centuries. 



In 1873 the late great sheik, Hussein Khalifa, presented Lady 

 Baker with a most beautiful female donkey, which had been 

 captured when small, but had never been tamed. This pretty but 

 desperate present required a number of men to introduce her to our 



