362 WILD ANIMALS. 



No one who lias only seen the undersized, dejected-looking 

 donkey of western Europe can form any idea of the intelligence, 

 strength and symmetry that kind treatment, careful breeding, and 

 good training develop in the animal, as exemplified by the asses 

 to be found in Arabia and Persia, where they are in some cases 

 superior to horses. " The asses of Arabia," says Chardin, " are 

 perhapsHhe handsomest animals in the world ; their coat is smooth 

 and clean, they carry the head elevated, and have fine and well- 

 formed legs, which they throw out gracefully in walking and 

 galloping. They are used only for the saddle, and are imported 

 in vast numbers into Persia, where they are frequently sold for 

 400 livres : and being taught a kind of easy, ambling pace, are 

 richly caparisoned and used only by the rich and luxurious nobles." 

 The difference is so marked that it is hard to believe that these 

 splendid, well-groomed, long-limbed white asses can have any 

 relationship with the shaggy-coated, stunted little British donkey. 

 Upon this point, however, we must accept the statement of 

 those eminent men who have studied the question, and they assert 

 that there is a close afl&nity between them, but the one exhibits 

 the result of care, careful breeding and correct feeding, and the 

 other the want of all these attentions, hence the violent contrast 

 apparent at the present day. 



Lenormant states that the horse was not introduced into Egypt 

 till 1900 B.C., but the ass was employed by the people of this strange 

 land from the earliest monumental times. It is certainly to be 

 frequently seen among the representations of their animals. The 

 ass was known to the primitive Grreeks, a fact attested by the refer- 

 ences made to it by their earliest writers, and to the Romans, for 

 they bred the animal with care. Pliny remarks that it is a species 

 of animal most useful for labour and ploughing, but more especially 

 for the production of mules, and that the profit derived from 

 these animals exceeded that arising from the richest estate ; also 

 that, according to M. Sarro, Quintus Axius, the senator, paid for 

 an ass the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces (upwards of 

 3200Z. sterling), and he adds, " I am not sure whether this did 

 not exceed the price ever given for any other animal." 



However, in some parts of Europe — especially Spain, Italy, 



