THE WILD-ASS. 395 



animals abound in a wild state. To the northward of Nejed, 

 adjoining the district of Jof, they are found in great numbers. 

 The Sherarat Arabs hunt them and eat their flesh (though 

 forbidden), but not before strangers.* They sell their skins 

 and hoofs to the pedlars at Damascus and the people of the 

 Hauran. The hoofs are manufactured into rings, which are 

 worn by the peasants on their thumbs or under the armpits as 

 amulets agamst rheumatism. 



According to Buifon, the domesticated breed of asses used 

 in Europe came originally from Arabia. The uniform aspect 

 of this animal, when compared with the great variety of 

 colour exhibited by the domestic races of the horse, has in- 

 duced some to suppose that the former has not been so long 

 nor so generally under the dominion of man. In the time of 

 Aristotle the ass was not found in Thrace, nor even in Gaul ; 

 but, on the other hand, v.'e know from the Sacred Writings, 

 that it was used as a beast of burden in the remotest acres of 

 Jewish history, and was therefore, in all probabdity, reduced 

 to servitude by the Eastern nations fully more early than any 

 other animal not immediately necessary to the existence of a 

 pastoral people. t Its comparatively recent reduction, then, 

 cannot, as Buffon has alleged, be assigned as the cause of 

 its greater uniformity of colour. This must be sought for in 

 the different natures of the two animals when acted upon by 

 the influence of climate, leading the one to vary only in form 

 and stature, and the other in colour as well as form. The 

 domestic ass of our northern climes being never improved by 

 crosses from a purer race, the inferiority of the animal is 

 scarcely to be wondered at. But under the warm and serene 

 chmates of Asia, where the breed is not only carefully tended, 

 but frequently improved by intercourse with the fleet and fiery 

 onager, it is an animal of great strength and considerable 

 beauty. 



The onager or wild-ass, called koulan by many of the tribes 

 of Asia, is distinguished from the domestic kind by the 



* Ibn Batuta says, that the flesh of the domestic ass was con- 

 sidered lawful in Oman, and publicly sold in the streets. — 

 Travels, p. 62. 



+ The first mention of mules is in the time of David, previous 

 to which time asses seem to have been used for riding. The 

 word rendered mules in Genesis xxxvi. S4, signifies springs of 

 water. 



