DOMESTICATED MAMMALS AND THEIR USES 239 



on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way" 

 (Judges v. 10). The undeserved obloquy from which the modern 

 "moke" suffers is, however, the survival of a very ancient pre- 

 judice. Possibly the original source of derision is to be looked for 

 in the shockingly inharmonious voice of this unfortunate creature. 

 The views of the ancient Egyptians on the subject are thus sum- 

 marized by Houghton (in Natural History of the Ancients]'. 

 " The ass was sacred to Typho, * the Evil Being '. According 

 to Plutarch, the Coptites had the custom of throwing an ass 

 down a precipice; and the inhabitants of Busiris and Lycopolis 

 carried their detestation of it so far as never to make use of 

 trumpets, fancying that their sound is similar to the braying of an 

 ass. Even the colour of the unfortunate ass which, in Egypt, as 

 in ancient Palestine, w r as of a redder tint than is usual with the 

 domestic ass of England was looked upon as indicative of the 

 Evil Being, and any unhappy man who was of a ruddy com- 

 plexion, or had decidedly red hair, was thought to be related 

 to the Evil Being (Typho)." 



Several species of wild donkey are native to Asia and Africa. 

 One of the latter, the Nubian Ass (Eqiius Africanus or tceniopus), 

 is probably ancestral to the domesticated form. The original 

 stock most likely resembled in colour and markings that from 

 which horses have sprung. 



It may conveniently be noted here that the the striped Tiger- 

 Horses or Zebras, of which Africa possesses three indigenous 

 species, are not the wild and intractable creatures once supposed, 

 but are susceptible to domestication. Nor do the zebras of the 

 "fly" districts succumb to the bites of the tsetse-fly, an insect that 

 makes considerable tracts in tropical Africa impossible for horses. 



MULES AND ZEBRA-MULES. It is a familiar fact that ordinary 

 mules are crosses or hybrids between horse and ass. On account 

 of their strength, endurance, and sure-footedness they are invalu- 

 able beasts of burden in mountainous countries, and play a more 

 important part both in peace and war than is commonly realized 

 in England, where there is considerable prejudice against them. 

 Probably Spain has made more use of them than any other 

 nation, especially in the New World. The importance of the 

 mule in war so far as the British Empire is concerned has been 

 abundantly demonstrated in our African and Indian campaigns, 

 and its value in peace is also considerable. 



