THE DONKEY. Ill 



qualities of the horse are attributable to the fact 

 that he inhabited wide plains, and we have dis- 

 cussed the suggestion that he took to a life in 

 the open because of carnivorous enemies which 

 lurked in the forests and jungles of the swampy 

 lowlands. The ass also appears to have been 

 driven forth into the wilderness by the same 

 agency ; but he sought safety in a different direc- 

 tion. He fled to the inaccessible hills ; and just as 

 the horse became structurally adapted for life on 

 the plains, so he became adapted for life among 

 the mountains. 



The sure-footedness of the donkey and the 

 mule, which makes these animals so valuable 

 for traffic upon precipitous roads, is one of the 

 qualities developed by their ancestral home of 

 which man has constantly made use. Lessons 

 learned amid the heights and gorges of Abyssinia, 

 long before the first pyramid was thought of, still 

 yield valuable results among the passes of the 

 Andes and Alps. 



Let us see how far an examination of the 

 donkey's other prominent characteristics bear out 

 the conclusion as to his upland origin. 



He is smaller than the horse, and the tendency 

 Is for all mountain animals to be small. We 



