THE HORSE TRIBE 175 
MALE KIANG 
The kiang comes from the Tibetan highlands. It is the largest and most horse-like of the wild asses of Asia 
range, but of woody plants on the high mountain-plateaux, where little else is to be obtained. 
Of wild asses in general the late Sir Samuel Baker once said: ‘Those who have seen donkeys 
only in their civilised state can have no conception of the wild or original animal; it is the 
perfection of activity and courage.” 
DOMESTICATED HORSE, ASSES, AND MULES 
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S 
THE DOMESTICATED HORSE 
LIKE the wild camels, genuine wild horses are very generally believed to be extinct. The 
vast herds which occur to-day in a wild state in Europe, America, and Australia are to be 
regarded, say those who believe in the extinction theory, as descended from domesticated 
animals which have run wild. So far as the American and Australian horses are concerned, 
this is no doubt true; but of the European stocks it is by no means so certain. For 
Dr. Nehring —and he speaks with authority —assures us that the wild horses known as 
TARPANS, which occur on the steppes north of the Sea of Azoff, between the river Dnieper and 
the Caspian, are veritable wild horses, the last remaining members of enormous herds which 
occurred in Europe before the dawn of civilisation. These horses formed no small part of the 
food of the savage races of men then inhabiting this continent. This we know because of the 
quantities of their remains found in the caves of the south of France, for instance, associated 
with the remains of the men who hunted them. Further evidence of this we have in the 
shape of crude engravings on pieces of bone and deer horns, carved by the more artistic 
spirits amongst these early hunters. From these drawings we gather that the horse they 
hunted was small in size and heavy in build, with a large head and rough, shaggy mane and 
