1859.] On the different Animals known as wild Asses. 247 



dessus plus vers la croupe que vers le cou. On met a plusieurs des 

 harnois tout argent, taut le maitre est content de la legerete et de 

 la douceur de leur aillure. II y en a du prix de quatre-cens francs, 

 et Ton n'en sauroit avoir d'un peu bons a moins de vingt-cinq pis- 

 toles. On les pause comme les chevaux. Les ecclesiastiques d'qui 

 ne sont pas encore daus les charges, ou dans les grands Benefices, 

 affectent a aller montes sur les Anes." He then proceeds to explain 

 how these fine Asses are taught to amble. 



The large and small races of Levantine Asses may be said to 

 bear somewhat of the same mutual relation as Horses and Ponies. 

 The small kind only have become domesticated in Northern Eu- 

 rope ; and we trace them southward into Darfur, where they are 

 thus described in Mr. G. Brown's Travels in that country (1799). — 

 " The Ass here is of the same appearance and of the same indocile 

 nature, as that of Great Britain. The only good ones are what the 

 Jelahs bring with them from Egypt : yet the animal is much used 

 for riding ; indeed few persons mount a Horse but the military, and 

 those who are in immediate attendance at Court. An Egyptian 

 Ass fetches from the value of one to that of three slaves, according 

 to the weight he is able to bear. A slave will purchase three or 

 four of the ordinary breed ; and yet the people are not anxious to 

 improve them." 



The Asses of Upper Egypt, according to Sounini, are particularly 

 handsome, but they degenerate towards the Delta. Fraser states, 

 that the Asses of Oman are the best in Arabia, and individuals of 

 the best breeds sell for extravagant prices.* In Munro's Syria, we 

 are told that the Asses of Damascus stand fourteen hands high ; 

 and elsewhere he remarks of one of them : — " This Ass was the 

 fiuest of the kind I ever saw, and the guide asserted that he would 

 sell for more than both his own Horses. With all the animation 

 and temper of a Horse, he had the superior qualification of being 

 quicker and easier in his walk." — " This Ass was found, after a long 

 journey, to refuse his food. On visiting him, after supper, I found 



* I have somewhere read that the pedigrees of the best Asses of Oman are 

 kept with as much care as those of the choicest breeda of Horses in the same 

 province. 



