438 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



aspect of this animal. Julius Capitolinus, in the life of 

 Gordian (in Hist. August.} observes, that that emperor 

 brought up thirty onagers and as many wild-horses ; and 

 in the secular games of Philip, twenty of the former and 

 forty of the latter were exhibited. 



The Turkish name of the wild-ass, Dagh Aischaki or 

 Moun tain-ass, points out its natural locality : " Whose 

 house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land 

 his dwellings. The range of the mountains is his pas- 

 ture, and he searcheth after every green thing."* Even 

 the choice which the domestic ass makes of the narrow 

 and irregular paths by the wayside has been regarded as 

 a remnant of natural instinct, t A good ass of Arabian 

 origin sells, according to Chardin, for as high a sum as 18 

 sterling. That the breed is capable of supporting great 

 fatigue was evinced by the young female mentioned by 

 Pallas, which travelled from Astracan to Moscow attach- 

 ed to his post-chaise, with only an occasional night's re- 

 pose. It afterwards proceeded in the same manner, and 

 without being incommoded by the journey, 700 wersts 

 (464 miles) from Moscow to Petersburgh.^ 



The Horse. Arabia has been called the native country 

 of the horse ; and certainly if the most valuable conquest 

 of man over the animal creation be that of this noble qua- 

 druped, which shares with him the fatigues of industry 

 and the glory of war, no nation better merits that distinc- 

 tion than the Arabs. The care and affection which they 

 bestow in breeding and rearing it, and the decided pre- 

 dilection with which it is constantly regarded, are found- 

 ed not merely on its utility to them in their predatory 

 and wandering life, but also on an ancient prejudice, 

 which induces them to consider horses as beings endowed 

 with generous sentiments and an intelligence superior to 

 that of other animals. They suppose that these spirited 

 creatures, so serviceable in the cause of Islam, have ob- 

 tained, through Mohammed, the blessing of God and an 

 occult capacity to read or repeat tacitly every day some 

 verses of the Koran. It was one of their old proverbs, 

 that, after man, the most eminent creature is the horse ; 

 the best employment is that of rearing it ; the most de- 

 lightful posture is that of sitting on its back ; the most 



* Job, xxxix. 6_8. -f- Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. t iii. p. 563. 

 J Edinburgh Journal of Agriculture, No. VII. 



