THE DONKET. 



interest in seeing how near a chance I ran of striking or being 

 struck. Sometimes there seemed no hope of avoiding a violent 

 collision, but by a series of most remarkable dodges, he gene- 

 rally managed to bring me through in safety. The cries of 

 the driver running behind gave me no little amusement. The 

 howadji comes ! Take care on the right hand ! Take care on 

 the left hand ! Take care, O man ! Take care, maiden ! 

 Oh, boy, get out of the way ! The howadji comes ! Kish (the 

 name of the donkey driver) had strong lungs and his donkey 

 would let nothing pass him, and so wherever we went we con- 

 tributed our full share of noise and confusion.'' 



It would be difficult to find among brute kind a better fellow 

 than the donkey, or one more easy to manage. The meanest 

 stable, the coarsest food, are by him considered favours, and 

 most gratefully received, and in exchange you are heartily 

 welcome to all his sturdy strength and good will. Properly 

 tended and groomed and with a decent harness on his back, he 

 is far from an unhandsome beast; indeed, the diiference in 

 appearance presented by a donkey so treated compared with 

 that of one whose constant food consists of chaff, tea-leaves, 

 and cabbage-leaves, whose curry-comb is the stock of an old 

 waggon whip, and whose stable is the domestic washhouse, 

 must be seen to be believed. Even when kept in such an 

 abject state its diseases are very few and mostly of a character 

 that cleanliness and proper feeding would obviate. As to the 

 age a donkey may attain without adopting the vulgar dogma 

 that it " never dies at all," it may be safely said that it has a 

 fair chance of outliving its master, supposing them to come 

 together, boy and foal. There was one of these animals that 

 many years ago drew up water from the well at Oarisbrook 

 Castle, in the Isle of Wight ; what the age of this donkey was 

 when he first took to water-drawing is not known, but it is 

 certain that he faithfully fulfilled the task for fifty-two years, 

 when he came to an untimely end by falling over the ramparts 

 of the castle. 



The ass's time for going with young is about eleven months, 

 and seldom more than one foal is produced at a birth. At 

 the age of four years the animal is in its prime. It is wonder- 

 ful how Nature will assert herself deprived of all artificial pro- 

 cesses brought to bear against her. Here we see the ass, whose 

 progenitors, dead two or three centuries, were stabled and fed 

 on grass and clover just as he is, preferring the dry, coarse 

 thistle to the juiciest herbage, drinking as sparingly as though 



