THE DONKEY'S ANCESTORS, 189 



How, indeed, could the common and 

 universal notions about the stupidity of 

 donkeys ever have originated ? A sheep, if 

 you will, is stupid, and so is a rabbit ; but I 

 doubt whether there is really in all nature a 

 more careful, sensible, intelligent, and wide- 

 minded brute than the common donkey. I 

 have always admired the genuine penetration 

 of those South American mountaineers who 

 told Mr. Darwin that they would give him 

 the * most rational * mule on which to cross 

 a dangerous pass of the Andes. They knew 

 the capacities of the mule ; and I have no 

 doubt they knew those of the donkey too. 

 The fact is, every one who has watched don- 

 keys closely must have noticed innumerable 

 proofs of their unusual mental gifts. They 

 stand, with the horse, the elephant, the camel, 

 and the monkeys, at the head of the animal 

 world, intellectually considered. (Dogs of 

 course I put out of consideration, as products 

 of direct human teaching.) But donkeys are 

 the final flower of long ages of native evolu- 



