TWB DONKST. 



THE DONKEY. 



For so long a period has this patient and hard-working ani* 

 msd been domesticated among us, that its original progenitors 

 seem to have become quite extinct. There are at the present 

 time animals known as " wild " asses, and " wild " enough they 

 are, in the ordinary sense of the term ; but in almost all such 

 cases they are the descendants of domesticated creatures which 

 have escaped from captivity, or mules of the wild and domestic 

 ass. The wild ass is found both in mountainous districts and 

 in plains ; vast troops roam over the great Asiatic deserts, 

 migrating according to the season, — in summer, as far north- 

 ward as the Ural ; in winter, southward to the borders of India. 

 It has a short mane, of dark woolly hair ; and a stripe of dark 

 bushy hair runs along the ridge of the back from the mane to 

 the tail. It has longer legs, and carries its head higher, than 

 the domestic ass. It associates in herds, and, like the horse, 

 has a leader. In Persia it is one of the chief objects of the 

 chase, and when hunted down it is eaten, its flesh being con- 

 sidered as great a dainty as is venison among us. It is, how- 

 ever, by no means easy to hunt down. Strange as it may 

 seem to us who have seen the ass in no other guise than a 

 forlorn drudge, as a free animal it is graceful in shape as the 

 antelope, nimble as the Bavarian chamois, and fleeter than 

 the Uthe-limbed Arabian steed. So it is, however ; and out of 

 at least twenty recorded instances testifying to the above facts, 

 the following, given by Sir Thomas Ker Porter, will serve : — 

 " My greyhound suddenly started off in pursuit of an animal, 

 which my Persians said, from the glimpse they had of it, was 

 an antelope. I instantly set spurs to my horse, and with my 

 attendants gave chase. After an unrelaxed gallop of fall three 

 miles we came upon the dog, who was then within a short 

 stretch of the creature he pursued, and to my surprise, and at 

 first vexation, I saw it to be an ass. Upon a moment's reflec- 

 tion, however, judging from its fleetness that it must be a wild 

 one, — a creature little known in Europe, but which the Persians 

 prize as an object of the chase, — I determined on approaching 

 it, as closely as the very swift Arab on which I was mounted 

 would carry me ; but the single instant of checking my horse to 

 consider, had given our game such a head of us that, notwith- 

 standing all our speed, we could not recover our ground on 

 him. I, however, happened to be considerably before my 

 companions, when, at a certain distance, the animal, in its 



