11 
THE HOESE. 
HISTORY. 
in the use of this ancient servant. They seem to have had their asses of nobler blood, to which they applied a peculiar term. 
Princes and the honourable of the land did not disdain to be borne by this ancient steed. Saul, when called by a glorious destiny 
to be the King of Israel, was in search of his father’s asses, or atonoth, which had strayed. His warlike successor had his super¬ 
intendent of atonoth, as of the other branches of his government; and even after the Horse was introduced for the purposes of 
traffic and war, the services of the patient Ass were neither disused nor despised. He was, in like manner, domesticated from the 
earliest times by the Arabians, the Persians, and other people of the East. He was familiar to the Egyptians, as history and 
their sculptured monuments attest; to the Lybians; and, it may be believed, to the other inhabitants of Africa bordering on the 
Great Desert. He was known to the Greeks, as we learn from the earliest writers; to the Romans, who cultivated the race with 
care; to the Spaniards, whose early intercourse with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians could not fail to make them familiar with 
so useful a creature. According to Strabo, he was unknown to the Britons, and to the inhabitants of the countries of the Baltic. 
He at length found his way beyond the Alps into Gaul, and, at a period comparatively recent, into the northern countries of Europe. 
The Ass, reduced to bondage, loses the fleetness, the spirit, and the wildness which he possesses in the state of nature. 
Unlike to the Horse, who readily becomes devoted to his master, and gives up all his powers to his use, this creature seems to 
yield an unwilling service, and to feel the degradation of servitude. Yet, when he finds himself a slave, he submits with patience 
to his lot, and his progeny do not seem to recover the wildness of their parents; for it is not known that the progeny of the domes¬ 
ticated Ass ever seek to regain their liberty by joining their fellows of the desert. It is otherwise with the Horse, who is readily 
tempted to join the emancipated herds, and fly from the bondage in which he has lived. In South America, numerous asses have 
been allowed to escape into the plains, and multiply in a state of nature, but they never acquire the habits of their free-born 
progenitors of the desert; they linger near the places of their birth, and fall an easy prey to their enemies. The change of nature 
in the Ass, by the effects of subjugation, is entire. It seems not to be the effect of discipline and education, but simply of a depri¬ 
vation of liberty. Thus it is that the Ass was amongst the earliest of the quadrupeds subjected to permanent servitude, and retains 
so strongly the impress of slavery. 
In his state of domestication, the Ass preserves nearly the pristine form and colour of his race. He is patient of thirst and 
toil, and able to subsist on dry and scanty forage. He does not seem to be sensible of cold, but he fears wetness, and is reluctant 
to enter pools and rivers. He is a strong animal, and is better adapted to the bearing of burdens and drawing of weights than, 
from his slender limbs and relative bulk of body, could be inferred. He is docile and cheerful under his burden when kindly 
used; but when urged to tasks beyond his strength, and assailed by unmerited blows, he manifests his natural temper. He some¬ 
times draws up his lips in a peculiar manner,, and shows his teeth with a savage grin; an expression of dumb agony which should 
speak to the feelings, in place of exciting derision and repetition of insult. It is painful to think that this creature, so meek, so 
patient in our service, so grateful for our kindness, should be too generally treated with contumely and harshness. Do we not con¬ 
sider that he is a creature who is only degraded by our abuse of him, and a slave because Nature has formed him with the instinct 
to resign his physical powers to our service ? His figure, his voice, his very patience and submission, have been the subject of 
ridicule in every age. He has been regarded as the very emblem of stupidity, perverseness, and obstinacy, “ tardus, piger, stupi- 
dus, stolidus.” With respect to his form, we say that this, like that of all the Equine family, is graceful and indicative of activity. 
His ears indeed are somewhat long for our taste; but his ears, we should remember, are the organs which in the desert enable him 
to collect the distant sounds, and avoid the danger of his enemies ; and his voice, which appears to us so inharmonious and rude, 
is designed to resound through the wilderness he inhabits, to warn his comrades of danger, and collect the distant members of the 
troop. His submission and patience do not surely demand excuse, yet even these are not the characteristics of his free-born state, 
but of that condition in which Nature forms him to be useful to us. His stupidity is merely inferred from his external aspect; 
for there is none of his tribe that exhibits equal sagacity; and with respect to his obstinacy and perverseness, it may be said that 
these are the result of our ungenerous use of his services, for, when treated with kindness, he manifests neither indocility nor want 
of attachment to his protector. 
This animal, though capable of enduring great cold, is the creature of the temperate and warmer countries. It is to them that 
his temperament is adapted, and his spirit seems to droop when he is reared in the higher latitudes. The Asses of the north of 
Europe cannot be compared with those of Syria, Persia, and the countries of the Levant, nor with those of Spain and the north 
of Africa. The Persians, though a nation of horsemen, pay great attention to the rearing of an animal so suited to a rocky and 
arid country. They have their different breeds, some of which are very large, and suited to draught and the bearing of burdens, 
and others are light and fitted for the saddle. Also, in Syria and Asia Minor are to be seen fine asses employed in travelling and 
the labours of the field. In the arid deserts of Arabia, the Ass shares with the Camel the burden of transporting the tents and 
merchandise of the wandering tribes, the goods of the caravan, or the solitary traveller. In Barbary and Egypt, a light and 
