466 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
Cortez for the ass, as it is to the cavaliers for the horae, 
it affords quite a suspicious comment upon the morals of 
the reverend fraternity that their bruterepresentatives shouid 
inherit such carnal propensities, and disturb the solivudes 
of nature even to this late day by so obstreporous disp..ys 
of them! 
These mules approach nearly in temper and form to the 
horse. I speak of the finest of them, of course, for {rey 
are very heely, and, as in the case of the mustangs, are 
seldom captured. You never see a drove of mustangs wuhout 
a considerable proportion of mules among them; which gpes 
to prove that the wild ass plays a consistent game with his 
peer, the wild stallion; and, indeed, it is no unusual thir to 
come across them in the spring and fall engaged in most 
desperate contests. The method of managing these duc‘loes 
is rather a comical one on the part of the ass. 
I once had an opportunity of witnessing an “affair” of 
the kind, which was something after this fashion. Th» ass 
was his own trumpeter, and announced his approach from 
afar with the euphoneous and ear-splitting symphony for 
which he is so famous the world over. The ladies of the 
herd seemed to be thrown into great consternation by this 
ferociously amatory prelude, and rushed t.gether in a trem- 
bling crowd around their rightful lord for protection. He, 
extricating himself and shaking his streaming mane upon 
the winds, with a disdainful toss of his fine crest, gallops 
out in front to meet his vulgar and boisterous enemy—who, 
with his wide jaws distended, in a very paroxysm of harmo- 
nious delivery, comes tearing on with headlong violence. 
The chivalrous stallion receives him with a salute from his 
heels that fairly rings again upon his hard shaggy limbs— 
this compliment, which would seem to have been sufficient 
to have shaken, if not overturned a stout-sized barn—has 
not the effect of even checking the impetus of the uncouth 
foe, who rushes on, his mouth still open, right at the throat 
