HISTORY. 443 



hands high, and of corresponding strength and fine figure. 

 The communication of this country with the East and with 

 Africa, doubtless produced an early attention to the race ; 

 and the extensive employment of the Mule has since caused 

 an extreme care to be devoted to the rearing of the parent 

 stock. The Asses of Spain are more numerous than the 

 Horses. 



In the New World, the Ass, like all the domesticated ani- 

 mals of the Old, has found a habitation suited to his condi- 

 tion. He is sometimes employed, though more rarely than 

 the Mule, in the bearing of travellers and burdens through 

 the terrible passes of the Andes, and then he manifests 

 courage, fidelity, and sagacity. He bears his rider along the 

 ledge of the precipice, where the foot can scarcely find a 

 resting-place, and where a false step would entail destruction 

 upon both. Sometimes he descends declivities so steep and 

 dangerous that they seem impassable. The faithful creature 

 stops when he arrives at the edge of the descent, pauses, and 

 will not move until he has prepared himself for the danger. 

 He views the path before him, and at length, bringing his 

 hinder legs beneath him, he glides down the precipice with 

 frightful rapidity. He follows the winding of the path as if 

 he had fixed in his mind the very track he was to follow. 

 The rider trusts all to his guidance : the slightest check of. 

 the rein might disturb the equilibrium, and cause both to be 

 hurled into the abyss below. 



In the British Islands, asses are in great numbers, chiefly 

 used by the poorer classes. The animal was known in Eng- 

 land even during the reign of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, but 

 their numbers were small ; for even in the reign of Elizabeth 

 they were regarded as foreign to the land. During the reign 

 of James I., however, they had become common. They are 

 now an object of economical importance. They are chiefly, 

 indeed, the property of the poor ; but, whoever owns them, 

 they are beasts of useful labour, largely used by a numerous 

 class, and meriting more attention than they have yet re- 



