1 859,] Motes on Kafiristdn. 333 



The other smaller animals are, hares of two kinds, a species of 

 rabbit or lagomys, porcupines, hedge-hogs, and marmots, together 

 with numerous minor rat-like animals of several species. 



The Gor-khar, or wild ass, is found in some parts ofPanjkorah^ 

 Bajawar, and the Merrah or Desert in the country of the Yiisufzi 

 tribe of Afghans, between the mountains of Suwat and the Kabul 

 river.* 



Ctesias gave an account of what has been considered the same 

 animal, two thousand years ago. He calls it by the right name, but 

 says it has a large horn in the centre of the forehead, and thus 

 turns it into an unicorn. f iElian in his "Natural History," has also 

 referred to it, and has bestowed on it, what Professor Heeren 

 calls, its Indian name of Kartazonon (Kapra^wvos), and which Pro- 

 fessor Tyschen again pronounces to mean the "swift animal," or 

 the " swift rhinoceros." 



This he infers to be, " a word compounded of <J^ Tcerfc, the 

 ancient and still surviving Persian term in use to signify a rhino- 

 ceros," and " uljC> tdzdn the participle of &*ijfi tdzedan, to run, to 

 fall upon ;" J but the Professor appears to have forgotten that the 

 rhinoceros naturally requires marshy ground, and much water. As 

 recently as Baber's time, that animal was found in the Peshawer 

 district, in the neighbourhood of the Kabul river, where there is 

 water in abundance, and much marshy land. 



We need not, however, turn the wild-ass into a rhinoceros, as 

 Professor Tyschen appears to have done, nor go so far for the 



* It is also found in the Lower Derajat about Asuni and further south. 



f " He (Ctesias :) Ind. cap. 25) tells us " That in the mountains of India the 

 wild ass is found, which is as large and larger than a horse. His body is white, 

 his head red, and on his forehead he has a horn an ell long, which towards 

 the bottom is white, black in the middle, and red towards the tip. He is one of 

 the strongest of all creatures, and so fleet that neither a horse nor any other 

 animal is able to overtake him. When first pursued he runs leisurely ; but by and 

 by increases in speed. He defends himself with his horn, with his teeth, and 

 his hoofs, and often lays prostrate many men and horses." iElian has also given 

 us the Indian name of this animal (.ZElian : Hist. Anim : XVI. 20.) Kartazonon 

 which Tyschen pronounces to mean the swift animal, or swift rhinoceros." 

 Asiatic Nations. Vol. I. pp. 98, 99. 



% Ibid : Tysciien, pp. 3G7, 3G8. 



2 x 



