256 ARISTOTLE'S EN AIM A, 



to the Ancients. Pliny describes it under the names Nabim 

 and Gamelopardalis, and says that it was first seen at Eome 

 during Csesar's dictatorship.* 



The Monycha described by Aristotle are the horse 

 {Hippos), the ass (Onos), the wild ass (Onos agrios), the so- 

 called Indian ass {Onos Indikos), the Syrian half-ass {Hejiii- 

 onos), the mule {Oreus), the hinny {Hinnos), the ginny 

 {Ginnos), and the pigs of Illyria and Pseonia, in which 

 syndactylism occurred, as explained already in Chapter x. 



The so called Indian ass was, according to Aristotle, 

 solid-footed and one-horned, and the only animal with solid 

 hoofs and also a well-formed astragalus.! This animal, the 

 description of which was probably taken from Ctesias, was 

 a creature of the imagination. Some antelopes, when seen 

 sideways, appear to have one horn, and this was probably 

 the basis of reports about the Indian ass, communicated to 

 Ctesias by visitors from India to the Persian Court, where he 

 resided. It is unlikely that the Indian ass was an Indian 

 rhinoceros, as some have suggested. Not only does a 

 rhinoceros answer very imperfectly to the descriptions, based 

 on Ctesias, of the Indian ass, but it is probable that Ctesias 

 did not know anything of rhinoceroses, for it seems, from 

 what ^lian says, that a rhinoceros was first reported, from 

 Ethiopia, by Agatharchides, who lived about B.C. 100.1 



The horse and other equine animals mentioned above 

 form one of Aristotle's best-defined groups, the Lophoura, 

 distinguished by having a small cranium but long jaws, and 

 a mane and tail of long flowing hair.§ 



Aristotle gives a great deal of information about these 

 animals, but much of it is of little interest. There are, 

 however, in addition to anatomical information already dealt 

 with, chiefly in Chapter x., many passages relating to the 

 sterility and fertility of equine hybrids. The Ginnos, he 

 says, is the offspring of a mule and a mare, but no female 

 mule has been known to have offspring. |i In G. ^. ii. c. 7, 

 7466, he goes further than this, and says that mules {Oreis) 

 are incapable of generating, either among themselves or with 

 other animals, and adds that the whole group of Hemionoi 

 is sterile. The word Hemionoi in this passage seems to 

 be used for mules and like hybrids generally, for he dis- 

 tinctly assertsU^ that the Hemionoi of Syria are fertile. 



- Nat. Hist. viii. 27. f H. A. ii. c. 2, s. 9. 



I De Nat. Anim. v. 27. § H. A. i. c. 6, s. 3, i. c. 13, s. 3. 



II Ibid. vi. c. 24, s. 1. IT Ibid. i. c. 6, s. 3, vi. c. 24, s. 1. 



