238 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 
hair-cloth, figuring as an eminently respectable if slippery covering 
for chairs and sofas, has been replaced by cheaper and more 
attractive materials. 
Tue Ass (Equus astnus).—Many of the purposes served by 
the horse are discharged with considerable efficiency by his 
Fig. 1173-—A Shetland Pony 
humbler cousin, a comparatively late-comer to Western and 
Central Europe, though domesticated from a very remote period 
by the Egyptians and other races (fig. 1174). It would be a 
mistake to base our judgment of the species upon the ill-fed and 
Fig. 1174.—Egyptian Sculpture 
\ 
too often cruelly treated donkeys seen in this country, for some of 
the breeds of South Europe and the East are handsome and even 
graceful. White asses have long been esteemed, as may be illus- 
trated by an allusion in the Old Testament, “ Speak, ye that ride 
