BOOK VIII. Lxix. 173-LXX. 176 



considered portentous. Theophrastus states that 

 mules breed commonly in Cappadocia, but that the 

 Cappadocian mule is a peculiar species. A mule 

 can be checked from kicking by rather frequent 

 drinks of wine. It is stated in the records of a good 

 many Greeks that a foal has been got from a mare 

 coupled with a mule, called a ginnus, which means 

 a small mule. She-mules bred from a mare and 

 tamed wild-asses are swift in pace and have ex- 

 tremely liard hooves, but a lean body and an indomit- 

 able spirit. But as a sire the foal of a wild-ass and a 

 domestic she-ass excels all others. The wild-asses 

 in Phrygia and Lycaonia are pre-eminent. Africa 

 boasts of their foals as an outstanding table delicacy ; 

 the vernacular word for them is lalisio. Records at 

 Athens attest a mule's having lived 80 years ; for 

 the citizens were so dehghted because after it had 

 been put aside owing to old age it encouraged the 

 teams by its company and assistance in their uphill 

 work during the construction of a temple on the 

 citadel, that they made a decree that the corn-dealers 

 were not to keep it away from their stands. 



LXX. Indian oxen " are reported to be as tall as oxen, 

 camels and to have horns with a span of four feet. ™''**'»** "/•■ 

 In our part of the world the most famous are those 

 of Epirus, having been so, it is said, ever since the 

 attention given to them by King Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus 

 achieved this result by not requisitioning them for 

 breeding before the age of four ; consequently his 

 oxen were very large, and the remains of his breeds 

 continue even to-day. But now yearUng heifers breedingand 

 are called upon for breeding, though they can breaking of. 

 stand it better at two years, while bulls are made 

 to serve at four. Each buU serves ten cows in the 



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