222 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



than is the case in Europe ; and many countries 

 have special breeds adapted for particular kinds of 

 work. It is stated, for instance/ that Syria alone 

 possesses four distinct breeds — namely, a light and 

 graceful type with a pleasant, easy gait, used by 

 ladies of rank ; a so-called Arab breed, reserved 

 entirely for the saddle, and carefully groomed and 

 tended ; a stouter and more clumsily made strain 

 employed for ploughing and other agricultural 

 operations ; and, lastly, the large Damascus breed, 

 characterised by its length of body and inordinately 

 long ears. Many of these Damascus asses are 

 white, and are apparently identical with a breed reared 

 at Bagdad, where they have been highly esteemed 

 for centuries, both on account of their colour and 

 their speed. Writing of the Syrian riding ass, Canon 

 Tristram^ states that it "will accomplish quite as 

 long a day's journey as the horse or the camel ; 

 though its speed is not so great, it will maintain an 

 easy trot and canter for hours without flagging, and 

 always gains on the horse up the hills or on the 

 broken ground." 



In addition to Syria and Palestine, asses of a 

 dirty white colour are spread over Egypt, Persia, 

 and some of the neighbouring countries. Formerly, 

 at any rate, asses were largely kept in the East for 

 the sake of their milk, which, as is well known in 



1 See Darwin, op. ciL, p. 65. 



^ Natural History 0/ the Bible, London, 1867, p, 39. 



