HISTORY. 437 



springs. He is wary in a high degree, exquisite in his 

 senses of sight and hearing, swift in flight, bold in scaling 

 the rocky precipice, and resolute in his own defence. When 

 attacked, he employs his teeth and posterior limbs, without 

 abating his flight. He is hunted by the tribes of the desert 

 for his skin, and for his flesh, which is greatly esteemed by 

 the Tartar nations. He is sometimes, it is said, taken in 

 pitfalls, and thus reduced to servitude. He is hunted by the 

 Persians with a large kind of greyhound trained to the chase. 



From the earliest times we have records of the habits and 

 condition of this wild and migratory creature. The Sacred 

 Writings make him the subject of many beautiful descriptions 

 and allusions. " Who hath sent out the Wild Ass free I or who 

 hath loosed the bands of the Orud 1 whose home I have made 

 the wilderness, and the salt land his dwellings. The range 

 of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every 

 green thing. '* He is often referred to as typical of indocility, 

 perverseness, and scorn of control ; and his very presence is 

 associated with images of barrenness and desolation. " Upon 

 the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers, yea, 

 upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city ; because the pa- 

 laces shall be forsaken ; the multitude of the city shall be 

 left ; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of 

 Wild Asses, a pasture of flocks/' 



The Wild Ass of the Desert is yet familiar to the people 

 of the countries which he inhabited of old. In stature he 

 equals the larger domesticated breeds. His ears are long, 

 and very moveable. His fur varies in colour, from brownish 

 to a silvery gray, being paler* on the head, shoulders, and 

 haunches, nearly white on the limbs and lower part of the 

 belly, and dark brown on the mane, with a streak of the 

 same colour, forming a cross on the shoulder, and extending 

 along the spine. He is termed by the Persians Gor ; and this 

 name coupled with Khur, the Persian term for an Ass, forms 

 Gor-Khur, by which designation the Wild Ass is known in 

 various countries of the East. 



