48 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. 



i 



Persia on the west, down to the time of Strabo\ "asses on 

 account of the scarcity of horses" were "generally made use of 

 in war. They sacrifice an ass to Ares, who is the only god 

 worshipped by them, for they are a warlike people." The 

 Carmanians closely resembled the Persians and Medes in their 

 customs. 



That the onager was regularly captured and domesticated 

 in Assyria in ancient times is clearly established by one 

 (Fig. 23) of the bas-reliefs discovered by Sir A. H. Layard at 

 Kouyunjik (Nineveh). The relief, which is one of a series of 

 slabs recording scenes in the life and hunting expeditions of 

 Assur-Bani-Pal (B.C. 668 — 626), represents two of the king's 

 attendants lassoing a wild ass. The other asses are seen 

 running away-. 



In ancient times they were well known in Syria, as is 

 clear from the frequent allusions to the wild ass in the Old 

 Testament. Aristotle^ speaks of "those animals called mules 

 (hemionoi) in Syria which are so termed because of their 

 similarity to mules (i.e. domestic mules), though they are 

 not really of the same kind, for they breed freely," and else- 

 where he states that "in Syria there are animals termed mules 

 {hemio7ioi), which, though they are quite a different species 

 from the domestic mules and resemble the wild asses (ol aiypiot 

 ovoi'*), get their name from a certain resemblance to tame 

 mules. Like the wild asses and the domestic mules they 

 surpass in fleetness. These mules breed freely, as is proved 

 by the fact that some were brought into Phrygia in the time 

 of Pharnaces, the father of Pharnabazus, and still continue 

 there. There are now but three, but formerly there were 

 nine." Apparently there were two kinds of wild asses in Syria, 

 differing but slightly from each other, the one known as the 

 ' wild mule ' {hemionos), the other as the ' wild ass ' {onos), the 

 former being probably darker in colour than the latter. Thus 

 one corresponded to the variety termed hemippus or onager 

 indicus, the other to the typical onager. 



1 726. 



■^ C. Keller (Abstimm. alt. Haustiere) takes them for Prejvalsky horses, but 

 cf. Horses on Figs. 62-4. 



3 Hist. Animals, i. 6. ■* Hist. Animals, vi. 36. 



