216 



MAMMALIA. 



requires, so to speak, no care ; it is a most useful auxiliary to 

 the poor man, more especially in rugged mountainous coimtries, 

 where its sureness of foot enables it to go where horses could not 

 fail to meet with accidents. It is, therefore, the Horse of those 

 of small means ; the abstemious and devoted helper of the poor. 

 It suffers with resignation under the tyranny of its oppressors. 

 Who has not witnessed with feelings of compassion the coal-mer- 

 chants of Burgundy, driving them along the roads, pxinishing 



Fig. t}.^. — Male and female Ass (oiimmou breeil). 



them at every step, so as to cause their backs to become denuded 

 of hair, and covered with revolting ulcers. When used as a riding- 

 animal by children, or to draw the mistress of the house to hear , 

 mass, its destiny is, possibly, less precarious, and less unbearable. 

 In energy, in nervous power, and in tem2:>erament, the Ass 

 even surpasses the Horse. It is also superior to the latter in 

 docility, abstemiousness, and capacity to endure fiitigue. How, 

 then, does it come to pass that this animal — so useful and devoted, 

 the servant of the weak, the Horse of the poor man — should have 



