THE MAMMALIA— MAN AND BEASTS. 
63 
from their great sociability and their power of imitation. Azara mentions an Agua- 
rachay of Paraguay (Canis cinereo-arpenteus) which became as tame as a Dog, but 
ate up all the fowls. Yet the opinion of ancient writers regarding the prior domes- 
tication of the Sheep seems to bo by far the more probable. The Sheep lives habi- 
tually in large flocks ; the mildness of this animal, its simplicity, and disposition to 
follow its companions even to certain destruction, must have rendered it an easy 
prey to the savage in those first ages which followed the creation of Man. Its utility 
for food and clothing must have been evident. On the contrary, the Wild Dog lives 
in troops ; ho is a Carnassier, fierce, and daring ; he unites with his fellows to form 
a combined plan of attack and defence. He is as strong and more to be dreaded than 
the Wolf. No use could be made of his skin, of his flesh, or the milk of the female. 
Hence it is not very probable that the savage would have at once foreseen all the 
future advantages which he would derive from associating the Dog in his labours 
to reduce and subdue the other animals. JEven if he could have entertained this pro- 
ject, the difficulties and. dangers with which it was beset would have diverted him 
from the enterprise. In this case, we must admit, that the more simple and natural 
idea would first present itself to his mind. 
It may easily be imagined, that in those early ages, when the globe was less 
peopled than it is at present, the great work of Domestication must have been slowly 
and gradually accomplished. The remarkable property which these animals possess of 
transmitting their acquired qualities to their descendants, and ol perpetuating modi- 
fications of form, colour, and even of inteUigence, render their races singularly 
capable of improvement. The several races of Men are far less capable of undergoing 
this relative improvement than the domestic animals, which receive his influence iu 
innumerable ways. Yet we are not without some striking instances of the trans- 
mission of acquired properties even in Man. Among the Negro children of Sierra 
Leona, the offspring of the Negroes, who have long been liberated, and who are born 
in the colony, possess an immense relative superiority of intelligence over the chiUlren 
of Negroes which have recently been emancipated from their slavery. Their parents 
inhabit the same country; but the older liberated Negroes have commenced a 
moral and intellectual education, while the more recent Slaves have long endured a 
savage and degraded existence. It has, however, never been attempted to bring the 
Human race, like the Domestic animals, to a greater physiological perfection, by 
always uniting individuals, remarkable for the beauty of their forms, the goodness of 
their temperament, and the extent of their intellectual faculties. Absolute monarchs 
might, in the course of a long dynasty, have made this curious experiment, and en- 
deavoured to promote the good of their subjects, by improving the breed of their own 
ministers. Hence Man, considered as a race, that is, in reference to his physiological 
qualities, is much loss capable of improvement than the domestic animals. 
In consequence of this remarkable property of transmitting acquired faculties to 
posterityt the notices of the ancients, which (late back perhaps from twenty to twenty- 
five centuries, however meagre, become peculiarly important and interesting. 
Wants, dangers, and necessities, develop the more violent and fiercer passions of 
animals; the suppression of these exciting causes improves the milder and more 
useful qualities. From the descriptions of Aristotle, the passions of the domestic 
animals were formerly much more violent than they are at the present day. 
The progress of domestication, as recorded by the ancients, in respect to the Horse, 
the Ass, the Dog, and the Cow, presents many interesting facts. With the Dziggtai 
{Equus hem{onus)t domestication seems to have made a retrograde movement. 
Herodotus (iv. 52) informs us that Horses existed in the wild state on the banks 
of the Hypaiiis (now the Dniester). These Horses, he adds, were white. Further, 
also, that in Thrace, tho Paconiaus of lake Prusiaa fed their Horses and beasts of 
burthen with fish instead of hay. Strabo says that the Wild Horses were to be found 
in India, on the Alps, in Iberia, among tho Celtiberians, and finally in Caucasus, whore 
the intensity of tho cold had given them thick coats of hair. The last remark is 
confirmed by modern observations on the Norwegian and Lapland Horses, which 
have a thick and woolly hair like tho fleece of our Sheep. Pliny says that tlie North 
contains herds of Wild Horses. Strabo relates, on the authority of Alegasthenes, 
that the greater immbor of our domestic animals were wild in India. iElian makes 
the same remark for tho interior of India. 
Since Wild Horses thus existed in great numbers on several parts of the Old Con- 
tinent, the progress of domestication must have been very slow in all those places 
where they came iu contact with the tame herds. Azara observed, that tho Wild 
Horses which live at liberty in the pltuns of Pari^uay, in herds consisting of many 
thousand individuals, have an instinctive habit of seducing the domestic Horses. As 
Won as they perceive one, says this able Naturalist, even at the distance of two 
leagues, tliey form into an uninterrupted column, and approach at full gallop to entice 
him. They cither surround him on every quarter, or merely come along side ; they 
^fess him by neighing gently, and always end in carrying him off never to return, 
without his offering them the slightest resistance. Tho inhabitants of that country 
hunt the Wild Horses very keenly, to drive them away from their own studs, for, 
without this precaution, the Wild Horses would seduce away all tho tame herds, 
^crbillon notices the Wild Horses in tho desert of Chamo in nearly tho same terms. 
This fact may serve to explain one of the causes that in ancient times the herds of 
^^ild Horses disappeared very rapidly when the population increased. According to 
accounts of those Missionaries who were best aciiuainted with China, M^ild Horses 
still to be found iu Western Tartary and in the territory of Kalkas. They live 
large troops in the neighbourhood of Ha-mi, and appear to resemble the common 
Horses. Grosicr, in his Description of China, mentions that if they meet a domestic 
Horse, they surround him on all sides, and, urging him onwards, draw him to their 
of Saghatur. 
A passage of Xenophon (‘ttsqI III.) alludes to this characteristic of tho 
ild Horses, so forcibly described by Azara and the Chinese Missionaries. His remark 
serves to show that, at the period of 450 years before tho Christian era, the domes- 
tication of the Horse was still recent, and had not yet overcome this primitive in- 
stinct. In speaking of a Horse broken in by tho groom, Xenophon observes, “ It is 
proper to ascertain whether, when momited, he will willingly separate from other 
wscs, or whether, when passing them at a short distance, he docs not attempt to 
join them.” Another observation of Xenophon, “ One can teach nothing to a Horse 
by word of mouth” (Ibid. VIII.), shows how imperfect their domestication must 
have been in his time. We have so many proofs and examples to the contrary, as to 
render an allusion to them only necessary at present. 
The modern Wild Horse, as described by Pallas, has his tail and mane very long 
and thick. He carries his cars depressed backwards, like a domestic Horse of the 
present day when preparing to bite. Xenophon and Varro describe a Stallion, the 
model of a War-horse, in words nearly synonymous to those used by Pallas in de- 
scribing the Wild Horse of the Russian Steppes (juba, cauda, crebra, suberispa, auribus 
applicatis). We have here an evident proof that the Domestic Horse, in the last 
century of the Roman Republic, still retained the characters now peculiar to the Wild 
Horses of the old continent. 
It must be observed that Herodotus describes the Wild Horses to be white 
while the dark bay has become the prevalent colour of the Wild Horses in America. 
Naturalists have generally concluded that the latter was the primitive colour of the 
species. This difference between the primitive hues of the Old and Now World is 
supposed by some to be owing to the excessive cold of the climate in some parts of the 
former, where it has been supposed that the temperature might act upon the Solipeda 
and Ruminantia in the same manner as it is known to do upon Hares, Rabbits, and other 
Rodentia. But Leo Afriuanus and Maxraol relate that the Wild Horses of Africa 
are small, and cither white or ash-colourcd. 1‘allas also informs us that the Wild 
Horses which inhabit the country between the Jaik and the Volga are fawn, red, or 
dun-eoloured. Aristotle attributes the changes in the colour of the hair of Mam- 
malia, as well as in the feathers of Birds, jointly to the cold and the influence of the 
water. The streams of Psychus, near to Chalcis in Thrace, according to him, 
caused the M'hite Ewes to produce Black Rams. In the neighbourhood of Antan- 
dros, he states that there arc two rivers, one of which causes the lambs to be white 
and the other black. We must remember that Aristotle belonged to Stagyra, and 
that he here mentions a fact which, it is probable, had fallen under his owm obseiwa- 
tion. The same remark is made by Varro, Pliny, jKlian, and by Anatolius (Hip- 
piatric, p. 59). It would be interesting to verify their declaration by observations 
made on the spot, as it seems to be rather of doubtful authority. 
The progress of education with the Horse, and the influence of domestication 
during 1800 years, are seen in the development of his paces both in number and 
permanence. The natural paces of the Horse are the walk, the trot, imd the gallop ; 
those which he has acquired from education, for the purpose of combining swiftness of 
pace with comfort to the rider, arc the amble, the pun relevc^ and the aubin of French 
authors. 
The pas relevc. consists in raising two foot on tho same side, not at once as in the 
amble, but successively. Jt is a close trot which beats tho ground, as in the walk, 
at four successive times. In tho auliny tho Horse gallops with the fore feet and 
trots with tho hinder. The Greeks and Romans had induced neither the pas rcleve 
nor the aubin. That pace which they call tolutarii, and which the Lexicons give as 
synonymous with is evidently tho amble, and seems to have been induced 
during the last century of the Homan Republic. It is described by V'’arro, Pliny, 
Nonius, and Vegetius, in a manner which leaves no doubt that the amble (tolutartm 
amhulaturani) was produced by training {iradiiur urtc). The race at that period 
had not been so long domesticated, that this property should have been transformed 
from an artificial acquirement into a permanent quality. It must then have been in 
tho interval of time which has elapsed since the days of Pliny and Varro, that the 
amble, the pas releve or trot with four beats, and the aubin, where the Horse 
gallops with the fore limbs and trots with the hinder, all of which are wholly artificial, 
had become natural paces, and were transmitted as such to posterity. At the present 
day, these acquired paces arc as permanent as the properties of pointing and bringing 
back game with the Setter Dogs and Retrievers. M. de la Malle has remarked more 
than a hundred times in the pastures of Normandy, that the Foals descended from a 
sire and dam endowed with the pas releve, or even where the sire alone possessed 
this quality, have exhibited this artificial movement in the meadow before receiving 
tho slightest education, or even leaving the side of their dam. 
As we might readily expect, the ancients were acquainted with very few varieties of 
the Horse. Only two distinct races, the Thessalian and African, can be traced on 
those ancient monuments which have reached our times. There are, however, two 
intermediate varieties, the Sicilian and Apulian races, formed probably from crosses 
between tho Thessalian and tho Wild Horse of Italy, and between tho Italian and the 
African races. The descriptions of authors agree precisely with the representations 
on the statues, the basso-relievos, and the medals, at least in respect to the tvfo pri- 
luitive races. We have the Thessalian Horse faithfully represented on the Par- 
thenon, iu tho equestrian statues and basso-relievos of the Greeks, and even on the 
columns of Trajan and other Roman sculphires, where this variety is always adopted 
as the type of the heroic Horse. The African race is seen on the medals of Carthago 
and on a medal of Mauritania, supposed to be a Juba (Catalogue de M. Mioimet, 
t. vi. Nos. 5 and 6). In tho time of Oppian, who was contemporary with Septimius 
Severus, the races of tho Horse had greatly increased in number, and he accordingly 
enumerates fourteen varieties. The Persian Horse of the age of the Ach.-emenides is 
figured on the monuments of Perscpolis. At the present day, in eonso(juenco of tho 
continual crossing of these races during twenty centuries of domestication, and the 
joint influence of climate and food, this species, so useful to Man, has been trans- 
formed into varieties almost innumerable. 
Tho Horse is now reared under domestication with greater facility than formerly. 
The foal, according to Varro, was suckled by its mother until the age of two years; 
—we separate them at six months. At throe years old the young Horse was exer- 
cised, and when he perspired, w'as rubbed over with oil. li the weather were 
cold, fires were lighted in the stables. The modern Horses do not require these 
minute attentions oven in our less congenial climate. 
The Ass, being less useful than the Horse, has been more neglected by Man, and 
consequently his physical and intelligent powers are not so highly developed. Yet 
there are some interesting conclusions which may bo drawn from an attentive com- 
parison of his ancient and modern history, and may serve to clear up some obscure 
