The Japanese horses are small, as are also those of China, although in both places some few are of a tolerable size, which are brought from the mountainous parts of those countries. Those of Tonquin, according to M. Rhodes, are strong, of a tolerable size, and very easily managed.
Horses, as before remarked, there is every reason to believe, were unknown in America on its first discovery, but upon being transported thither they multiplied in a most surprising manner, especially in Chili, which, as M. Frezier remarks, is the more surprising, since the Indians killed many to eat, and numbers through fatigue and from want of proper care. In the Phillipine Islands also horses that were taken from Europe increased in an astonishing manner in a very short time.
Horses are suffered to live wild in the Ukraine, among the Cossacks, on the river Don; here they go in troops of four or five hundred together, seldom attended with more than one or two men on horseback; they have seldom any shelter when the ground is even covered with snow, which they scrape away with their fore feet to get at the pasture; and it is only in very hard winters, and then but for a few days, that they are lodged in the villages. These troops have a chief among them, whom they implicitly obey, and singular as it may appear, he directs their course, makes them proceed or stop at his pleasure. He seems also to have a regular command, and regulates all their movements when attacked by wolves or robbers: in this situation he assumes entirely the business of a commanding officer, and is busily engaged, during the whole time, in traversing round the troops, and if he perceives any out of their places he pushes them in with his shoulder, and actually compels them to resume their station. Without being arranged by men they march in perfect order, and pasture in perfect files or brigades, without ever mixing or separating, notwithstanding they are at perfect liberty, and without the smallest control. It is no less singular, that their chief generally maintains his situation for four or five years, but he no sooner discovers the least symptoms of inactivity than some one will come out of the herd and attack him; if he conquers he continues the command, but if subdued he is forced to fall into the ranks, and the victor becomes chief, and is obeyed by the whole troop.
The horses in Finland, as soon as the snow is off the ground, about the month of May, leave their stables, and assemble together in a particular part of the forests, where they form themselves into different troops, and afterwards no one ever separates from his own party, or intermixes with any other. When thus divided, each troop fixes upon a certain district for their pasturage, within the bounds of which they strictly keep, and never encroach even upon that belonging to another troop, though adjoining; in this manner they continue to graze while there remains any pasture, but on that becoming scarce, they all march off together to another spot, and these marches are conducted with so much order and regularity that the owners know exactly where to find their horses when they have occasion for them; in these cases, when fetched, and having done the service they were wanted for, they return back of themselves, and again join their own troop. In this manner they remain till about the month of September, when the approach of the inclement season induces them to come home, which they do in troops, and each regularly proceeds to his own stable. At this time they are generally in good case, but the fatigue they undergo in the winter, together with the small allowance of provisions, very soon reduces them. They are small, spirited, and very docile, and roll upon the snow as familiarly as other horses do on grass.
In the Island of St. Helena there are wild horses, which, although originally transported from Europe, are extremely savage and ferocious, and, to avoid being taken, will often leap from very high precipices into the sea. In the neighbourhood of Nippes there are some not bigger than asses, but they are strong, bold, and extremely industrious. The horses in St. Domingo are of a middle size, and though many of them are caught with ropes, they seldom become docile, but generally remain restless, and almost unmanageable. In Virginia there are also horses of domestic origin, yet, from feeding in the woods, are very ferocious, and hard to be taken, and when caught, they remain exceedingly stubborn.
In some parts of Tartary they make use of large birds of prey to hunt their wild horses; they are taught to seize him by the neck or head, upon which he sets off with the greatest speed, and continues running until he is quite exhausted, without being able to extricate himself from his tormentor. The wild horses of the Mongous, and Kakas Tartars, are so swift that they often escape the arrows of the most expert hunters; they generally keep in large numbers together, and if tame ones come near they will surround them, unless they instantly take to flight. There are a great number of wild horses in Congo; they at times are seen at the Cape of Good Hope, but the inhabitants preferring those from Persia they are scarcely ever caught.
In the early part of this work I mentioned, that from the observations of horse-breeders it was the general received opinion, that the male had more influence upon the offspring: than the female; and I then suggested some reasons which it rendered to me very doubtful, but experiments and observations have since convinced me, that the fact does not only hold good with respect to horses, but also in the human race, and in every species of animals, that the male has infinitely more influence on the exterior form of the young than the female, and that he in fact is the type of the race. Nor does the remark I have made, that the females constitute the unity of the species in the least controvert this position, because that cannot be extended further than her possessing the greater facility in representing the species, but this point is more amply discussed in this work under the article Mule; from which it will appear, that notwithstanding the female may have more influence on the character of the breed, yet from her it never receives any improvement, which faculty is solely possessed by the male.
THE ASS.
If we consider this animal with attention, he appears only to be a horse degenerated. The perfect similitude in conformation of the brain, lungs, stomach, intestinal conduit, heart, liver, and other viscera, and the great resemblance of the body, legs, feet, and the entire skeleton, supports this opinion. We may also attribute the slight differences, which are found between these two animals, to the influence of the climate and food, and to the fortuitous succession of many generations of small wild horses, which, gradually degenerating, have at last produced a new and fixed species; or, rather a succession of individuals alike, all vitiated in the same manner, sufficiently differing from a horse, to be looked upon as another species. What appears to favour this idea is, that horses vary much more than asses in their colour; they have consequently been longer domestic, since all domestic animals vary much more in their colour than wild ones of the same species. The greater number of wild horses, of which travellers speak, are small, and have, like the ass, grey hair, and the tail naked and frizzled at the end: there are also some wild horses, and even domestic ones, which have a black stripe on the back, and other marks, which nearly resemble both wild and domestic asses.
Again, if we consider the difference of the temperament, disposition, and manners; in a word, the organization of these two animals, and, above all, the impossibility of mixing the breed, so as to make one common species, or even an intermediate species, which may be renewed; it appears a better founded opinion to think that these animals are of a species equally ancient, and originally as essentially different as they are at present. The ass differs materially from the horse in the smallness of the size, largeness of the head, length of the ears, hardness of the skin, nakedness of the tail, the form of the rump, and the dimensions of the neighbouring parts, the voice, the appetite, manner of drinking, &c. Can we then suppose that the horse and the ass came originally from the same stock? are they of the same family, or not? and have they not always been different animals?