THE DONKEY 
ae interesting it would be if we could 
see the ancestors of our pet donkey 
for six thousand years back, all 
standing in a row, with a picture 
behind each showing in what 
country it had lived, and what sort 
of master it had had, and what sort of work it 
did. It might require years to take in such a show, 
and probably the ancestor at the far end of the line 
would be found to be a wild, fleet animal of north- 
eastern Africa,—maybe one. of a herd feeding on an 
oasis in the Sahara, or grazing on the scanty vegeta- 
tion of desert mountains. From this wild African 
species our donkeys of today are supposed to have 
originated. However, there are wild species found 
in Persia and Syria, and one in Thibet, and one in 
northwestern India, and perhaps our especial donkey 
may have come from some of these. To this day, 
herds of wild asses roam Persia and Armenia as 
they did in the times of Abraham, or when Xenophon 
described them four hundred years B. C. These 
wild creatures can run so swiftly that Nadir Shah, 
who lived two hundred years ago, considered that 
running down one of these wild creatures with grey- 
hounds was equal in effort to winning a battle, or 
conquering a province. Its flesh was regarded as 
superior to the best venison, and its hide was made 
into ornamental shagreen and other valuable leather 
entirely waterproof. 
There are pictures of donkeys in the tombs of 
ancient Thebes, which are excellent likenesses of 
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