442 TH^ HORSE. 



Minor are to be seen fine asses employed in travelling and 

 the labours of the field. In the arid deserts of Arabia, the 

 Ass shares with the Camel the burden of transporting the 

 tents and merchandise of the wandering tribes, the goods 

 of the caravan, or the solitary traveller. In Barbary and 

 Egypt, a light and agile kind of Ass is found. In Cairo, 

 numbers of them are to be seen standing ready saddled for 

 hire, serving the same purpose as hackney-coaches with us. 

 They are treated by their owners in the same manner as 

 horses, rubbed carefully, and fed on chopped straw, beans, 

 and barley. They are healthy, cheerful, and gentle, and the 

 safest animals that can be ridden. Their usual pace is a 

 pleasant amble, and they carry their riders rapidly and with- 

 out fatigue from place to place in the straggling city. The 

 Asses of the caravans of the interior frequently arrive in 

 Egypt, after having carried their riders sixty days and more 

 through the deserts, as fresh as if they had started the day 

 before. It is in situations like these that the services which 

 this creature renders save him from the unmerited contempt 

 which elsewhere accompanies him. 



Of the Asses of European countries, those of Greece, Italy, 

 and Spain, have long possessed the greatest reputation for 

 their superior qualities. Greece had the means of obtaining 

 the Asiatic races from the countries on the Black Sea and 

 the Caspian. Those of Arcadia are celebrated by early 

 writers, and Cappadocia is mentioned as supplying Greece 

 with a valuable race. The breeds of modern Greece and the 

 islands of the Archipelago, though treated with the neglect 

 with which every thing useful is treated in those countries, 

 are still greatly superior to those of the northern parts of 

 Europe. The Romans paid extreme attention to the rearing 

 of this animal ; and in the days of the Empire paid enormous 

 sums for procuring those that were the most beautiful and 

 of the finest races. Italy still produces Asses of a valuable 

 kind. But of all the countries of Europe, Spain is the most 

 distinguished for these animals. Many of them are fifteen 



