1 68 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ASSES AND MULES. 



The Ass the Poor Man's Horse — Feeds like a Goat — Can ill Bear Snow Regions — No Asses in Norway or Sweden — The 

 Abyssinian the Original of the European Ass — Colleclion of Various Ass Tribes at Regent's Park Zoological Gardens — The 

 Ilemione — The Onager, the Zebra, the Quagga — Ass Esteemed as a Hack in the East — A useful Drudge in England — Not 

 worth Corn and Groom's Care — Not a Good Riding Animal — London Costermongers own the best — The best Asses Black 

 or Dark Brown — Anecdote of Hunting — The Ass divided into Two Classes, Light and Heavy (see Illustrations of Cairo 

 Donkey and of French BattdeC) — Mistake to increase the Size of the British Ass — The Egyptian Donkey Boys — The French 

 Stallion Ass for Mule-breed, ng — The Puitou Peasant's Ass and Mule-breeding Cheptch — Treatment of Baudet — Lives to a 

 great Age — Value of Two-year-old Male Baiidet — Wild Asses — The Syrian Wild Ass, or Hemione — The Indian Wild Ass, or 

 Onager — Not a Donkey at All — Description of Chase and Capture — Story of — Mules and Mule-breeding — Mules used by the 

 Ninevites — In France an Important Trade — Poitou Mules — How Prepared for Sale — The Mule Suited to coarse Herliage 

 and no Roads — Not Found in Flanders, Normandy, or New Yoik — Plentiful Round Avignon — Duke of Beaufort's Agent 

 on Mule-breeding — Mr. Sutherland's advocacy of Mules against Horses — The Cyprus Ass — American Account of — The Henny, 

 Cross between Male Horse and She Ass. 



This work would not be complete without some notice of the ass — the "donkey" of English 

 children, the "cuddy" of Scotch, the "moke" of the London costcrmonger, the " haiidct" of 

 France, the "borrico" of Spain, whence the finest breed is derived, and where he holds a place 

 of the highest utility as a beast of burden. 



The ass is the poor man's horse ; with no groomings, with a rough stable, a sufficient supply of 

 coarse herbage which every other domestic quadruped except the goat would reject, it will thrive, 

 and work, at its own pace, for long hours, either drawing a vehicle or carrying burdens, as it did for 

 Joseph's brethren, a task for which its conformation is particularly suited. 



In one respect only is the ass more delicate than the horse — it cannot thrive or multiply in 

 regions where the snow covers the ground for several months of the year. A horse will bear a 

 severe degree of dry cold under which the ass would die. Asses are not known in Northern 

 Russia ; and an eccentric traveller who made a tour in Norway with three gipsies and a donkey, 

 found the latter as much an object of curiosity as a tame bear in England. 



About the origin of the domestic ass there is not quite so much m}-stery as about that of the 

 horse. The Zoological Gardens, in 1874, had in its varied collection of the ass tribe a male 

 Abyssinian wild ass, which in no way differs from the ordinary grey donkey of tlie streets ; and if 

 it really is a wild species, and not an importation from Egypt, there can be no question about the 

 African ancestry of our useful drudge. 



But the ass tribe has this essential difference from the horse. For breeding purposes there is 

 only one race of horses — all, from the Norwegian to the Thibetan or Siamese, from the Cossack 

 pony to the Sardinian, from the dray-horse to the Icelander, will intermingle freely, and their 

 produce will be fertile — but of the ass tribe there are half a dozen varieties closely resembling each 

 other in externals, which are as distinct as the horse and the zebra, and if brought together only 

 produce mules. Nevertheless, eminent physiologists maintain that the horse, the ass, the zebra, 

 all have one common origin ; but the links that would prove that those who now breed a mule 

 would breed a horse or an ass have not been detected in three thousand years. 



