AND AMERICAN 
son degrades him; we look at him, and give our opinions, 
not from himself, but comparatively with the Horse; we 
forget that he is an Ass, that he has all the good qualities 
of his nature, all the gifts attached to his species; and at 
the same time, we only think of the figure and qualities of 
the Horse which are wanting in him, and which he ought 
not to have. 
There are among Asses different races, as among Horses; 
but they are much less known, because they have not been 
taken the same care of, or followed with the same atten- 
tion; but we cannot doubt that they came all originally 
from warm climates. Aristotle assures us, that there were 
none in his time in Scythia, nor in the other neighbouring 
countries of Scythia, nor even in Gaul, which, he says, is 
a cold climate; and he adds, that a cold climate either 
prevents them from procreating their species, or causes 
them to degenerate; and that this last circumstance is the 
reason that they are small and weak in Illyria, Thrace, and 
Epirus. They appear to have come originally from Ara- 
bia, and to have passed from Arabia into Egypt, from 
Egypt into Greece, from Greece into Italy, from Italy into 
France, and afterwards into Germany, England, and lastly 
into Sweden, &c. for they are in fact, weak and small in 
proportion to the coldness of the climate. They are said 
to have been introduced into England subsequently to the 
reign of Elizabeth. Of all the various breeds of Asses, the 
Spanish breed is by far the finest. They are often found 
of the height of fifteen hands, and the value of a hundred 
guineas. 
The Latins, after the Greeks, have called the Wild 
Ass, Angra; which animal must not be confounded, as 
some naturalists and many travellers have done, with the 
Zebra, because the Zebra is of a different species from the 
Ass. The Angra, or Wild Ass, is not striped like the 
Zebra, and is not near so elegant in figure. Wild Asses 
are found in some of the islands of the Archipelago, and 
particularly in that of Cerigo; there are also many in the 
deserts of Libya and Numidia; they are gray, and run so 
fast that the Horses of Barbary only can beat them in 
hunting. When they see a man, they give a loud cry, 
turn themselves about, and stop, and do not attempt to fly 
till they find he comes near them; they are taken in snares 
made with ropes, and go in troops both to pasturage and 
to drink; their flesh is also eaten. There were also, in the 
time of Marmol, Wild Asses in the island of Sardinia, but 
less than those of Africa, and Pietro della Valle says, he 
has seen a Wild Ass at Bassora, whose figure differed in 
no respect from a domestic one; he was only of a lighter 
colour, and had, from the head to the tail, a stripe of 
white; he was also much livelier and lighter in hunting, 
than Asses usually are. 
x 
RURAL SPORTS. 81 
Neither Asses nor Horses were originally found in 
America, though the climate, and especially of that part 
called North America, is as good for them as any other: 
those which the Spaniards have transported from Europe, 
and which they have left in the West Indies and on the 
continent, have greatly multiplied; and in some parts Wild 
Asses are found in troops, and are taken in snares like 
wild Horses. The Wild Asses of America will not suffer 
a Horse to live among them. Wo to the Horse that 
chances to stray into the pasture where they are feeding in 
bands. They fall upon him, and bite and kick him till he 
ceases to exist. 
As Wild Asses are unknown in these climates, we can- 
not in reality say whether the flesh is good to eat; but it is 
certain that the flesh of the domestic Ass is extremely bad, 
and harder than that of the Horse. The milk of the Ass, 
on the contrary, is an approved and specific remedy for 
certain complaints, and its use was known from the Greeks 
to us: that it may be good in its kind, we should choose 
a young healthy she Ass, full of flesh, which has lately 
foaled, and which has not since been with the male: care 
must be taken to feed her well with hay, wheat, and grass, 
with particular care not to let the milk cool, and not even 
to expose it to the air, which will spoil it in a little time. 
The Ass is, perhaps with respect to himself, the animal 
which can carry the greatest weight; and as it costs but little 
to feed him, and he scarcely requires any care; he is of 
great use in the country, at the mill, &c.; he also serves to 
ride on, as all his paces are gentle, and he stumbles less 
than the Horse: he is frequently put to the plough in 
countries where the earth is light, and his dung is an ex- 
cellent manure to enrich hard moist lands. 
The Ass, like some other animals, and some birds, pos- 
sesses in great perfection the power of finding his way 
home, when lost at a great distance. An instance of this 
is recorded by Kirby and Spence, in their excellent Intro- 
duction to Entomology. In March, 1816, an Ass, the 
property of Captain Dundas, R. N. then at Malta, was 
shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forrest, bound 
from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having struck 
on some sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from 
the shore, the Ass was thrown overboard to give it a 
chance of swimming to land,—a poor one, for the sea was 
running so high, that a boat which left the ship was lost. 
A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gib- 
raltar were opened in the morning, the Ass presented him- 
self for admittance, and proceeded to the stable of Mr. 
Weeks, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, to 
the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined 
that, from some accident, the animal had never been 
shipped on board the Ister. On the return of this vessel 
