WILD ASS 



119 



swaying slightly, giving it, to the eyes of the furtively watching savage, an elastic 

 appearance." 



Again, the African traveller William Burchell observes that the horn of the 

 rhinoceros " grows from the skin only, in the same manner as the hair — a circum- 

 stance which entirely divests of improbability the assertion of its sometimes being 

 seen loose, although by no means so loose as some writers have supposed. Nor 

 is it at all extraordinary that the rhinoceros should possess the power of moving 

 it to a certain degree, since the hog, to which, in the natural arrangement, it so 



W) x 



MASAI ASSES. 



closely approaches, has a much greater power of moving its bristles, which if 

 concreted would form a horn of the same nature." 



Observations recently made in the London Zoological Gardens show that 

 the idea of rhinoceros horns being mobile is based on fact, although the degree of 

 mobility is very slight. It is, however, no doubt sufficient to have given rise 

 to the legends referred to above. 



Ethiopian Africa is the home of numerous representatives of the 

 horse family (Equidce), all of which differ more or less markedly from 

 the horse itself, which is now a native of Asia but in former daj^s ranged all over 

 Europe in the wild state. On the other hand, the ass (Equus asinus) is essentially 



Wild Ass. 



