THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 



51 



of Paphlagonia was some form of Equus hemionus, probably the 

 same variety as that called ' mule ' (hemionus) in Aristotle's 

 time. 



The wild ass of Mesopotamia seems not to be as fleet as a 

 first-rate Arab. Sir A. H. Layard 1 in describing a mare of 

 matchless beauty which belonged to Sofuk, a powerful Shammar 

 sheikh, called by her master, Shammeriyah (as if the property 

 of the tribe), says that she was the offspring of a celebrated 

 mare named Kubleh " whose renown extended from the sources 

 of the Khabour to the end of the Arabian promontory, and the 

 day of whose death is an epoch from which the Arabs of 



FIG. 25. The Nubian Wild Ass 2 . 



Mesopotamia date events concerning their tribe." Mohammed- 

 Emin, sheikh of the Jebours, assured Layard that "he had 

 seen Sofuk ride down the wild ass of the Sinjar on her back." 



From a passage to be cited later on (p. 125) it is clear that 

 the wild ass (onager) existed all across southern Russia in the 

 fifth century B.C., for it was hunted both by the Sarmatian 

 tribes who lived on the east side of the Don (Tanais) and by 

 the Scythians who occupied the region to the west of that 

 river. It is even possible that the wild ass dwelt in the 

 Danube valley almost down to the beginning of the historical 



1 Nineveh and its Remains (ed. 1867), p. 74. 



2 This illustration is from a photograph (copyright) by Mr L. Medland, F.Z.S. 



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