396 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



greater kngth and finer form of its limbs, its straight chest* 

 and somewhat compressed body. Its head is better put on^ 

 and more erectly carried, than, in the common ass ; and the 

 ears, which are shorter by one-third, are slender and sharp 

 pointed. The true source of our domestic race, though well 

 known to the ancients, appears to have been lost sight of 

 during the middle ages, and was indeed but obscurely known 

 for some centuries after the revival of leaniincr. We owe 

 the best modem elucidation of its histor>% as we do that of 

 several other species, to the researches of Pallas. The 

 Romans were familiar with the aspect of this animal. Julius 

 Capitolinus, in the life of Gordian (in Hist. August.) observes, 

 that that emperor brought up thirty onagers and as many wild 

 horses ; and in the secular games of Phihp, twenty of the 

 former and forty of the latter were exhibited. 



The Turkish name of the wild ass, Dagh Aischaki or moun- 

 tain-ass, points out its natural locality : — " Wliose house I 

 have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. 

 — The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he search- 

 eth after every green thing."* Even the choice which the 

 domestic ass makes of the naiTOw and irregular paths by the 

 wayside has been regarded as a renuiarrt of natural instinct. t 

 A good ass of Arabian origin sells, according to Chardin, for 

 as high a sum as 18/. sterUng. That the breed is capable of 

 supporting great fatigue was e^-inced by the young female 

 mentioned by Pallas, which travelled from Astracan to Mos- 

 cow, attached to his post-chaise, with only an occasional 

 night's repose. It afterward proceeded in the same manner, 

 and without being incommoded by the journey, 700 wersts 

 (464) miles) from Moscow to Petersburgh.t 



The Horse. — Arabia has been called the native comitry of 

 the horse ; and certainly if the most valuable conquest of man 

 over the animal creation be that of this noble quadruped, 

 which shares with him the fatigues of industr}^ and the glory 

 of war, — no nation better merits that distinction than the 

 Arabs. The care and affection wliich they bestow in breed- 

 ing and rearing it, and the decided predilection with which 

 it is constantly regarded, are founded not merely on its utihty 

 to them in their predatory and wandering life, bvit also on an 



* Job xxxix. 6-8. f Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. t. iii. p. 563. 

 X Edinburgh Journal of Agriculture, No. VII, 



