1 08 MULES. 



Swift as an arrow in his speed he flies ; 



Sees from afar the smoky city rise ; 



Scorns the throng'd street, where slavery drags her load, 



The loud voic'd driver and his urging goad : 



Where e'er the mountain waves its lofty wood, 



A boundless range, he seeks his verdant food." 



Scott's Version. 



We find, that at a very early period of sacred his- 

 tory, the common domestic ass (Chamor,) was em- 

 ployed in all the menial labours of a patriarchal family, 

 while a nobler and more estimable animal (Aton,) was 

 destined to carry the patriarchs, the well born ; and 

 those on whom marks of distinction were to be con- 

 ferred. They constituted an important item in a 

 schedule of the pastoral wealth of those times ; of 

 course attracted particular attention and care. David 

 we are told, had an officer, apparently of high dignity, 

 appointed expressly to superintend his stud of high 

 bred asses, or Atonoth. 



There was another race that has been mentioned by 

 Aristotle, and by Theophrastus, whom Pliny quotes, 

 which they denominated the wild mules that bred 

 (liemi-onos?) and were found in Cappadocia and Africa. 

 There can be but little doubt but this is the Hemionus 

 or wild mule of the Mongalian Tartars, so particu- 

 larly described by professor Pallas ; and that it is not a 

 hybrid, but actually of the species of ass resembling a 

 mule.* This race is identified by Dr. Harris with 

 the Orud of scripture. 



The wild ass of Northern and Western Africa, 

 whose flesh was so much admired by the Roman epi- 



* Herodotus says, that in the army of Xerxes, which invaded 

 Greece, there were "chariots of war drawn " by wild asses." M. 

 Lurcher, a celebrated commentator, renders them zelres in his 

 French translation, which he supports from Oppian, lib. 3. v. 183. 

 Bu* it is now well known that the zebra is of a species entirely 



