CHAPTER YII. 



AKCIENT HISTOEY OF THE MULE. 



The mule seems to liave been used by the ancients 

 in a great variety of ways ; but what should have 

 prompted his production must for ever remain a mystery. 

 Tliat they early discovered his great usefulness in making 

 long journeys, climbing mountains, and crossing deserts 

 of burnings and, when subsistence and water were scarce, 

 and horses would have perished, is well established. 

 That he would soon recover from the severe effects of 

 these long and trying journeys must also have been of 

 great value in their eyes. But however much they 

 valued him for his usefulness, they seem not to have 

 had the slightest veneration for him, as they had for. 

 some other animals. I am led to believe, then, that it 

 was his great usefulness in crossing the sandy deserts 

 tliat led to his production. It is a proof, also, that where 

 the ass was at hand there also was the horse, or the 

 mule could not have been produced. Any people with 

 sufficient knowledge to produce the mule would also 

 have had sufficient knowledge to discover the difference 

 Ijetween him and the horse, and would have given the 

 preference to the liorse in all service except that I have 

 just described. And yet, in the early history of the 



