Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — WILD ASSES. [ARTICLE]

WILD ASSES.

n»oy Are Beautiful C reatures, Utterly Tjj Cerent from the Doifujqtie. '! he wild ass is a creature to admit-.'. Bis ears are not so ridiculously long as 11 o o of his domesticated brother end :’r,e;e is also a black mark running a ong the spine, and anotln r aero s i >. sin ulders. He is a handsome, swif ,; u 1 •’< worful animal, hardly to be redo.;in ed as of the same stock with the nerate, eoru’.by creatures which * in our own eountrv, worn down by ■ ueity, ill-usage, and iatigu \ .ag..: from neglect, gaunt from hunger, ike.: •->a;.ural- spirit, gone, and - its - ice ■ m ; ><l by a mixture oi obsrina- .... • mt-ng, contrasting sharp y itli .i t, spirited animals that roam at' ■ urge over the plains of Peri •, In ; a end rabia. In the East, where the ass is co n--1 aratively a noble animal, it is used ior . ng almost exclusively by the i. h •ii l great. The native ass of Mesop .- • iniii‘a is of la.ge size, and the win " « c lo.= are most esteemed, being n !1 • u (i, e (he honored animals for c > ■ y iag o i'ciui dignitaries, kings, pro ;t----s, o ig.'s. From .the time ta* - came common in Palestas ", : cm to have fallen into diwro; u ■ ■ liit. our biessed Lord's rid in ■ h ; referred to by the prop 1 .!: c r showing His humility: “li • ting will corno to the -cling upon an ass.” V I a-s, seldom foun t now wo own, has a short mane > ‘ :e , hair, and a stripe of d<- 1 runs along the ridge df ti: a he mane to the tail; it neighs ike e, files at a trot, herds in ■ rov anra fleet than a hoise, dwei . n e places, and is very shy as ■ <u- legs and carries its he;, c . han the domestic ass. It p.'nted and wary, trying to ti ■ok, ilie powers of the hunter, am. , i neipal object of the chase in Peis : *ro it is prized as the noblest of game ort troops of wild asses roam over the atic deserts, migrating in summer ; - north as the Ural, and extendU cr Tartary, Mesopotamia, Persia, an indostan. Layard tells us that in l’o • a they equal the gazelle in fie etnas i id to overtake them is a feat rare! c-eomplished by the swiftest of ma o hey move in herds, each having a lea <-■ who goes at the head and is always s he watoh; if he observes a hunter ; goes round and round him, and if h •aspects danger he rejoins the herd a > -ommunicates with them, and all set v v a gallop.