gallant bearing of the hemiones, not even of the hemippes, which inhabit the same stable.
The hemione, gentle reader, otherwise the dsigghetai, is the wild ass of Western India: the hemippe is the wild ass of Mesopotamia and Syria. We have both Hemione and Hemippe in the Zoological Gardens, and the Gour to boot, — the wild ass of Persia. There is another wild ass in Asia, the Kiang, which inhabits the plateau of Thibet, and perhaps other parts of Central Asia. Colonel Hamilton Smith saw in London, many years ago, a wild ass from the Sikkim Frontier of China, which rejoiced in the name of “theYo-to-tze,” and was probably a kiang. If not, the yo-to-tze comes into our catalogue as Asinus equuleus or A. hippargua, for he gave it a couple of names.
Add to these the Quagga, the Dauw, and the Zebra, in South and West Africa, with possibly a new species in the East, on the banks of the White Nile, and you have the whole of the asinine family in review.
The qualities of speed, courage, and endurance which the wild asses possess are astonishing. Their beauty is only second to that of the horse, and in comparative strength they excel him immeasurably.
When we look at them it is a marvel how the ass
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The Zebra, the Gour, and the Kiang: the latter is the principal figure in the centre, partly covering two figures of the Gour.
can have become a by-word and reproach. "Come along, old horse,” is by no means an offensive expression in the Kentuckian parlance, but the slightest comparison to asinus, asne, âne, A. S. S, or any other form of the despised name, is equally a casus belli in all countries.
The seven-year-old zebra bit harder and kicked harder, and was more difficult to hold, than any horse Mr. Rarey ever handled. It took three hours and a-half to reduce him to first submission. Now, this particular zebra is a small zebra, who had been in confinement all his life, and may be said to have never fairly stretched his legs until he was put through his paces in the little theatre in Kinnerton Street.
His entr6e was wonderful. Although he was delivered to Rarey, lmr6dafxos, in a box, it was considered prudent by that admirable artist to take up a leg before he came out of it. The bit of heart of oak was put in his mouth as a preliminary to the leg business, and he made a sortie from the box like a lion rushing into the circus. He had three ropes to his head-stall, and three sturdy aides to guide him, and so accompanied, or rather with these three weights hung on to him, he was transplanted from his dcbarcadfere to the theatre. As soon as he was landed there, and confronted with his calm antagonist, the ropes were cast off, and he stood astonished in the midst. The struggle
had perhaps taken the edge off his vivacity; it was the first time since his colthood that he had been seriously contrarié (except in getting him into the box that same morning), and so he contemplated the Tamer with a look of suspicion