SECRETARY'S REPORT. 237 



THE ASS. 



The ass, or donkey, is a remarkable animal, very rarely seen 

 in New England. In most countries of the old world, particu- 

 larly around the Mediterranean, these creatures are very nu- 

 merous and occupy a position in society for which they were 

 evidently designed from the beginning. The Chinese have a 

 proverb, which says, " a woman's heart bears breaking a great 

 many times." "Whether this be true or not, it is certain that 

 donkeys arc killed every day, and yet nobody ever saw a dead 

 donkey. They were created for the special use of poor, brutal, 

 half-civilized men, and therefore their nerves of sensation were 

 left in an undeveloped state. Consequently they seem to enjoy 

 abuse, whipping producing only an agreeable titillation upon 

 their dry, hard skins, which are fit only for drum heads and 

 parchment, and upon which no vermin of any kind can possi- 

 bly subsist. Like the West-Indian negroes, who eat greedily 

 cayenne pepper, and drink molasses and undiluted rum, asses 

 prefer food which has a strong and pungent taste, and will 

 select thorns, thistles, and the coarsest and bitterest herbage in 

 preference to soft, sweet grass. This insensibility of their 

 nerves renders necessary also their enormous ears, without 

 which they could not hear at all, while their voices like those 

 of deaf people generally are not very musical, and like them 

 donkeys speak very loud, being heard distinctly three miles. 

 Their structure is more stiff and angular than that of the horse, 

 so that to ride one with comfort it is customary to get well 

 back over the hind legs. The tail resembles that of the cow 

 more than that of the horse, and the hair of the body is gen- 

 erally coarse, long, and of a grayish or dun color, though 

 sometimes nearly black. 



There are many breeds of asses, as of horses, and they vary 

 in height from seven to fifteen hands, and in weight from three 

 hundred to one thousand pounds. 



They are usually employed for carrying burdens on pack 

 saddles, though sometimes harnessed to carts or wagons. 



The asses of Spain are very fine and more numerous than 

 the horses. 



Professor Low says : "Asses are now an object of economical 

 importance in England. Tiicy are chiefly, indeed, the property 

 of the poor ; but whoever owns them, they are beasts of useful 



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