THE ONAGHA. OH AVILD ASS. 



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from the slow, dogged, ill-used animal of European notoriety. Under 

 a more favourable climate, and in the free life of the desert, he has 

 preserved his tall stature, his vigour, and the haughtiness of his 

 bearing. The wealthiest and most distinguished personages do not 

 disdain to mount him or harness him to their carriage. He has a 

 keen eye, a quick scent, a sure foot, a mild and resolute aspect. He 

 accomplishes with ease from six to eight miles an hour ; and, lastly 

 a fact worthy of notice his life, which with us seldom exceeds 



OXAGKA, OR WILD Ass. 



fifteen years, in Asia is frequently prolonged to thirty or thirty-five. 

 He is less subject to sickness than the horse, and he almost equals 

 the camel in sobriety, docility, arid endurance of hunger and fatigue. 

 Whether the Tartars and Kalmucks, who use mares' milk as a 

 medicine, attribute, as we do, certain therapeutical virtues to the milk 

 of the ass, we are unable to say; but it is certain that this 'milk 

 forms a portion of their daily food. On account of the strong 

 proportion of saccharine serum which it contains, it is well adapted 



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