HORSES. 
5*3 
account of its milk; and it is stated that in one district of Equatorial Africa large 
droves of these animals are kept solely for the sake of their milk. A peculiarity 
in the disposition of the ass, is its reluctance to cross even the smallest stream of 
water; this aversion being doubtless a direct inheritance from its desert-haunting 
wild ancestors. 
DOMESTIC ASS. 
The term mule is strictly applicable only to the hybrid between 
the male ass and the mare; the product of the union of the opposite 
sexes of these two species being known as the hinny. Mules, although they 
frequently display the stubbornness and obstinacy of the ass in an intensified 
degree, are for some purposes more valuable than either of their parents, being 
very sure-footed and with great powers of endurance. Some of the finest mules are 
bred in Spain, the United States, and North-Western India, where they frequently 
attain the height of 16 hands. In Spain they are generally employed to carry 
burdens, and march in long droves, following in single file a leader distinguished 
vol. II.— 33 
