oe 
: 
ASS. 
It is the comparison that degrades him: he is 
considered, not in himself, but relatively to the 
horse. We forget that he is an ass, that he has 
all the qualities of his nature, all the gifts an- 
nexed to his species; and think only on the figure 
and qualities of the horse which are wanting in 
him, and which it would be improper for him to 
have.” | 
The facts respecting the wild ass are, in some 
instances, ill-authenticated and obscure, and, in 
general, badly methodized and ill squared with 
science. Some animals which he calls wild asses 
were seen by Bruce in Abyssinia. A wild ass is 
noticed by Bell as an inhabitant of Tartary, hav- 
ing waved white and brown hair resembling that 
of a tiger; but no such Tartarian wild ass is 
otherwise known to naturalists. The proper wild 
ass of Tartary, called koulan by the Tartars, and 
believed to be the origin of the ordinary domestic 
ass, is of an uniform silvery grey colour, with a 
broad coffee-coloured stripe extending along the 
spine, and crossed on the shoulders by a trans- 
verse band. The wild ass of Khur or Ghurkhurd 
in Persia stands ten or twelve hands high; its 
limbs are beautifully slender; its coat or fur is 
sleek, and of a reddish colour, passing into silvery 
grey on the belly and hinder parts; its mane is 
short and black; and the tuft which terminates 
its tail is also black; but no band of contrasted 
colour, as in the Tartarian wild ass and the ordi- 
nary domestic ass, passes along the back or across 
the shoulders. The wild ass of the Himalayan 
provinces, called by the inhabitants Kiang, has 
shorter ears than the wild ass of Khur, and is in 
other respects so different as to be obviously a 
distinct variety. The wild ass of Mongolia and 
the borders of Thibet and China, called by the 
inhabitants Dzigeuetai, is prevailingly of a pale 
yellow colour, passing into white on the under 
parts, and having a dark chocolate-coloured band 
along the spine. An animal of the south of Africa 
is described by Le. Vaillant as a wild ass, as hav- 
ing a pale yellow colour, as occurring in large 
herds, and as called by the Greater Namaquas 
the white zebra; but it has not been reported on 
by any traveller except himself, and may not im- 
probably, according to a suggestion of Colonel 
Hamilton, have been the female of the Isabelline 
antelope. The wild ass of Cutch and North Gooj- 
rat, and the two varieties already noticed as the 
wild ass of Khur and the wild ass of Mongolia, 
are thought by Colonel Sykes to be strictly iden- 
tical with one another ; and he suggests that “the 
discrepancies of descriptions may be easily re- 
medied by the supposition, that animals examined 
by different individuals, at different seasons of 
the year, did really slightly differ owing to the 
difference of seasons.” “The wild ass of Cutch 
and the north of Goojrat,” says he, “is not found 
farther south in India than Deesa, on the banks 
of the Bunnas river, in lat. about 30° 30’, nor 
have J heard of it to the eastward of the 75° of 
longitude on the south side of the Himalaya 
ladies are accustomed to ride. 
mountains, In Cutch and Northern Goojrat, it | 
frequents the salt deserts and the open plains of | 
Thoodpoor, Jaysulmer, and Bickaneor. By swim- 
ming the Indus, it may communicate through 
Scind and Baloochestand with Persia; and in |; 
Persia it evidently exists, from Sir Robert Ker 
Porter’s descriptions. ‘To the north and east, 
Persia abuts upon the peculiar localities of the 
Dzegeuetai, through Bucharia to the deserts of 
Cobi, where it delights in the salt marshes, as it 
does in India, and thence to Tartary, Thibet, and 
South Siberia.” The Syrian wild assis both larger 
and more handsome than the wild ass of Khur; 
and the species improves to the westward of the 
Euphrates, becomes very fine on the mutual 
borders of Asia and Africa, and appears, from the | 
accounts of Burckhardt, to be very abundant in 
Arabia Petrzea. The Tartars hunt the wild ass 
in preference to all other beasts of chase, and are 
very fond of its flesh. The Sherarat Arabians 
also hunt it, privately eat its flesh, and publicly 
sell its skin and hoofs to the travelling merchants 
from Damascus. Even the polished and luxurious 
epicures of imperial Rome held the flesh of the 
wild ass in the same kind of estimation in which 
modern epicures hold venison; and Pliny inti- 
mates that a sort of regular trade was maintained 
in supplying the Roman market with ass-foals, | 
of what were reckoned the most delicate and best 
flavoured kind, from the north of Africa. eal 
Several of the domestic varieties of the ass in 
other countries than our own, particularly in 
those of Western Asia, are of a very superior 
character to our variety, and might be most ad- | 
vantageously imported for crossing and improve- 
ment. The foal of an African variety, was not 
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long ago imported to the Surrey Gardens at Lon- 
don, and is known to belong to a race of compara- 
tively great speed and power. Some individuals 
of a variety reared on the island of Gozo, in the 
Mediterranean, have been brought to Britain as 
stallions for the production of mules; and either | 
they or other individuals of the same race, have | 
attained the height of fourteen hands, and been | 
sold for the sum of 100 guineas. Three or four | 
different breeds are raised in Syria, and treated 
with great care and attention ; and one of these is 
a small but spirited kind, on which the Syrian 
A domestic breed 
in Western India are not much larger than good- | 
sized Newfoundland dogs; they are often seen, as 
frequently the domestic ass of Europe, associated | 
with gypsies; and they are used partly in droves || 
to carry small loads of salt or grain, and partly || 
by pot-makers, to carry their clay. But by far 
the most interesting race, jointly for intrinsic 
excellence and for extensive distribution, is the 
ass of Arabia,—which is not only the fostered 
domestic breed of the country whence it takes its | 
name, but one of the favourite breeds of Syria, | | 
Persia, and most other parts of Western Asia. || 
“The asses of Arabia,” says Chardin, “are among || 
the finest in the world. Their coat is smooth and 
a : = = Ss 
