102 A DESCRIPTION OP 
a black cross on his back and shoulders. When very 
young, the Ass is sprightly, and even tolerably handsome ; 
but he soon loses these qualifications, either by age or ill- 
treatment, and becomes slow, sullen, and headstrong. 
The female is passionately fond of her young one ; and it 
is said she will even cross fire and water to protect or re- 
join it. The Ass is also sometimes greatly attached to his 
owner, whom he scents at a distance, and plainly distin- 
guishes from others in a crowd. 
An old man who, a few years ago, sold vegetables in 
London, used in his employment an Ass, which conveyed 
his baskets from door to door. Frequently he gave the 
poor industrious creature a handful of hay, or some pieces 
of bread, or greens, by way of refreshment or reward. 
The old man had no need of any goad for the animal, and 
seldom, indeed, had he to lift up his hand to drive it on. 
His kind treatment was one day remarked to him, and 
he was asked if his beast was apt to be stubborn ? "Ah ! 
master," replied he, " it is of no use to be cruel, and as 
for stubbornness, I cannot complain ; for he is ready to 
do anything, and go anywhere. I bred him myself. He 
is sometimes skittish and playful, and once ran away from 
me ; you will hardly believe it, but there were more than 
fifty people after him, attempting in vain to stop him ; 
yet he turned back of himself, and he never stopped till 
he ran his head kindly into my bosom." 
The ancients had a great regard for this animal. The 
Romans had a breed which they held in such high esti- 
mation, that Pliny mentions one of the males selling for a 
price greater than three thousand pounds of our money ; 
and he says that in Celtiberia, a province in Spain, a she 
Ass had colts that were bought for nearly the same sum. 
The Ass lives nearly to the same age as the horse; and the 
female's milk has often proved beneficial to consumptive 
persons. 
