56 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. 



this animal was not, as has been supposed 1 , the Common or 

 Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra) of South Africa, but rather one 

 of the species still to be found in Somaliland and Shoa. 



But it is possible that the Romans may have obtained the 

 zebra from a region much less remote than either Abyssinia or 

 Somaliland, for though in modern times no wild asses or zebras 

 are known in that part of North Africa which lies between the 

 Nile and the Atlantic and to the north of Atlas, there is good 

 evidence that this has not always been the case. Herodotus 2 

 includes amongst the wild animals of Libya 'asses without 

 horns' in contradistinction to 'asses with horns 3 .' The horned 

 asses were probably some species of antelope, whilst in the 

 'hornless' kind we may recognize without hesitation some wild 

 species of Equidae. This is rendered fairly certain by the fact 

 that there is excellent evidence for the existence of zebras west 

 of the Nile in medieval times. 



A statement of El Masudi, the famous Arab historian and 

 geographer (flourished about 950 A.D.), cited in a cosmography 4 

 compiled by Muhammad ben Ahmed ben Ayas, a Circassian 

 (who probably lived at the beginning of the sixteenth century), 

 renders it clear that zebras were found west of the Nile. The 

 passage runs as follows : 



"The external oasis comprises an ancient town built by a 

 Coptic king named Boudssya, one of the children of the people 

 of Qoft. El Masoudy informs us that this oasis lies between 

 Egypt and the Said in the territory of Assouan: it is the first 

 province of Nubia. This country is independent and isolated. 

 It belongs to no other. It affords dry dates and dry grapes. 

 It nourishes small wild asses (zebras) striped black and white 

 in extraordinary manner. They are never mounted and if 

 transported without the country, they only live a short time." 



As there are no oases on the east side of the Nile, it would 

 seem almost certain that the district here indicated as in the 

 territory of Assouan and in the first province of Nubia is the 



1 Flower and Lydekker, Mammals, p. 385. 



2 iv. 193. 3 iv. 191. 



4 Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Imperiale et autres 

 Bibliotheques, Tome vin. pp. 5, 19 (Paris, 1810). 



