ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 217 
Hebrew writers for swiftness and spirit in the wild. It appears 
that he has suffered by comparison with the horse, of which he 
is instinctively regarded as a sort of poor relation. The Spanish 
people, however, have continued in their esteem of. this useful 
animal, and it is to them that we owe the excellent quality of 
our modern stock, particularly as regards size, spirit, and finish. 
It requires but the slightest contact with this peculiar relative 
of the horse to discover that anything like low spirits and inac- 
tivity are the result partly of poor feed and partly of an excessive 
suspicion of all new things and an exaggerated disposition not 
to run away like the horse, but to stop and investigate ; indeed, 
curiosity is one of his principal faculties. As to intellect, he is 
easily underrated, for he is fully the equal of the horse, his 
stupidity being apparent and not real, like that of the ox. 
The excessively long ears and large bone of the modern ass 
are the distinguishing features of the African stock, whereas the 
Asiatic has short ears, is lighter in limb, and so swift in action 
that it is said to be impossible for the hunter to run one of them 
down even with the best of mounts. 
In connection with the domesticated horse and ass another 
group of closely related wild animals must be mentioned, the 
zebra (Equus sebra) and the quagga (Equus guagga). These 
strange horselike animals, in most respects nearer like the ass 
than the horse, exist in some three or four well-marked and 
more or less distinct races, all native to southern Africa. 
The true zebra is smaller (twelve to thirteen hands)! than 
either the horse or the ass, lives in the highlands, and is 
covered on both body and legs with a beautifully complete 
system of black stripes on a background of dirty white? The 
1A “hand” is four inches, and is the universal unit for measuring the 
height of horses. This height is taken at the withers or shoulders, at what 
would be the highest point of the body when the animal is standing with his 
head down, as in grazing. 
2 Suggesting the reason for the ancient name “ hippotigris,”— A7pfo (horse) 
and ¢igris (tiger),— a name similar in make-up to *camelopard” (camel leopard) 
for the giraffe. 
