AND LOWER EGYFT. 293 



parts of these very countries, have continued wild, 

 are extremely ferocious. Domestic animals are no 

 where more familiarized, and, I may say, more 

 completely domesticated than in the warm coun- 

 tries of the East. The horse, ardent as the air 

 which he respires, is there, nevertheless, as gentle as 

 a lamb. The buffalo, scarcely recovered from his 

 state of savage liberty, displaying still the counte- 

 nance of ferocity, is as tractable as the ox is in Eu- 

 rope. He quietly permits himself to be mounted 

 and led along, and a child is sufficient to conduct 

 numerous flocks of them. It is not in the nature 

 of the soil and of the aliments, nor even in the tem- 

 perature of the climate, that we must, seek for the 

 reason of that gentleness of character, which is not 

 to be found elsewhere. It is not here, in fact, a 

 want of energy, nor a natural indolence, such as 

 lias been observed in those animals which inhabit 

 the very warm, but, at the same time, extremely 

 humid regions of southern America. Each species 

 is endowed with all the tire, with all the strength, 

 with all the vigour of which it is susceptible. 



But it is the man of these countries who, after 

 . ing acquired the possession of those useful ani- 

 mals, has understood how to derive the greatest ad- 

 vantage from this conquest. That part of the East 

 has been, at every period, the abode of wandering 

 nations, who, possessing no other property but their 



u 3 (locks, 



