Buffon's Natural History. Volume 05 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

At two years and a half old the first middle incisive teeth fall out, and the others on each side soon follow; they are renewed at the same time, and in the same order as those of the horse. The age of the ass is also known by his teeth in the same manner. From the age of two years and a half, the ass is in a state to engender; the female is still more early and quite as lascivious, so that unless she is beaten to allay her ardour, she seldom conceives. The usual time of her being in heat is May or June; when pregnant it soon goes off, and at the tenth month milk is found in her dugs; she brings forth at the twelfth, and frequently there are found solid pieces of flesh in the liquor of the amnios, resembling the hippomanes of a foal. Seven days after delivery she is capable of receiving the male, so that we may say she is constantly rearing and engendering. She only produces one foal, and we have scarcely ever heard of her having two. At the end of five or six months the foal may be weaned, and it is even necessary if the mother is pregnant. The stallion ass should be chosen from the largest and strongest of his species; he must at least be three years old, but should not exceed ten; his legs should be long, body plump, head long and light, eyes brisk, nostrils and chest large, neck long, loins fleshy, ribs broad, rump flat, tail short, hair shining, soft to the touch, and of a deep grey.

The ass, like the horse, is three or four years in growing, and lives also like him 25 or 30 years; it is said the female usually lives longer than the male; but, perhaps, this happens from their being often pregnant, and at those times having some care taken of them, instead of which the males are constantly worn out with fatigue and blows. They sleep less than the horse, and do not lie down to sleep, except when they are exceedingly tired. The male ass lasts also much longer than the stallion; the older he is the more ardent he appears, and in general the health of this animal is much better than that of the horse; he is less delicate and not near so subject to maladies. The ancients knew of no disease they had but the glanders, and which, as we have already said, they are much less subject to than the horse.

There are among asses different races, as among horses, but they are much less known, because they have not been taken the same care of, or followed with the same attention; but we cannot doubt that they originally came from warm climates. Aristotle assures us, that there were none in his time in Scythia, nor the other northern countries, nor even in Gaul; which, he says, is too cold a climate, and adds, that a cold climate either prevents them from procreating their species, or causes them to degenerate, which is the reason they are small and weak in Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus. They are still the same in France, though they have been for many ages naturalized, and though the coldness of the climate is much lessened within these two thousand years, by the number of forests destroyed, and marshes dried up; but it is more certain, they have been but newly introduced into Sweden and the other northern countries. They appear to have come originally from Arabia; and to have passed from Arabia into Egypt, from Egypt into Greece, from Greece into Italy, from Italy into France, and from thence into Germany, England, Sweden, &c. for they are, in fact, weak and small, in proportion to the coldness of the climate.

This migration seems to be well proved by the account of travellers. Chardin says, "that there are two kinds of asses in Persia, the asses of the country, which are slow and heavy, and which are only made use of to carry burthens, and a race of Arabian asses, which are very beautiful, and certainly the first asses in the world; their skin is glossy, their heads high, and have high light feet, which they raise with grace, walk well, and are solely employed to ride on. The saddles which they use with them are like a bat, round on one side, flat on the other; they are made of woollen cloth, or tapestry, and have harness and stirrups, and the rider sits on them nearer the crupper than the neck. There are some of these asses which even cost about 18 pounds sterling, and there are none sold under 25 pistoles. They are broke like horses, but are taught no other pace than the amble; the manner of teaching them is by tying their hind and fore-legs of the same side with two ropes of cotton, which are made to the length of the step the ass is to pace, and are suspended by a cord fastened to the girth. A groom mounts and exercises them in this pace morning and evening. Their nostrils are slit in order to enable them to breathe more freely, and they go so fast, that a horse must gallop to keep up with them."

It is to be regretted that the Arabians, who have so long taken care to preserve the breed of their horses, had not paid the same attention to the ass, since from the above it appears that Arabia is not only the first, but also the best climate in the world for both. From Arabia they have passed into Barbary and Egypt, where they are handsome and high in stature. In the Indies, and in Guinea, they are larger, stronger, and better than the horses of those countries: there are a great number of them at Madura, where one of the most considerable and noble tribes of the Indians pay particular homage to them, because they believe that the souls of all their nobles pass into the bodies of asses; in short, asses are found in great numbers in all parts of the east, from Senegal to China, and wild asses are more commonly found than wild horses.

The Latins, after the Greeks, have called the wild ass onager, which animal must not be confounded, as some naturalists and travellers have done, with the zebra, because the zebra is of a different species from the ass. The onager, or wild ass, is not striped like the zebra, and is not near so elegant in figure. Wild asses are found in some of the islands of the Archipelago, and particularly in that of Cerigo; there are also many in the deserts of Lybia and Numidia. They are grey, and run so fast that the horses of Barbary only can beat them in hunting. When they see a man they give a loud cry, turn themselves about, and throw up their legs, then stop, and do not attempt to fly till he comes very near them: they are taken in snares made with ropes, go in troops to pasture, and their flesh is also eaten. There were, in the time of Marmol, wild asses in Sardinia, but they were less than those of Africa; Pietro della Valle says he saw a wild ass at Bassora, whose figure differed in no respect from a domestic one, only of a lighter colour, and had from the head to tail a stripe of white; he was also much livelier and swifter than the asses usually are. Olearius mentions, that one day the King of Persia made him go up with him to the top of a little building, in form of a theatre, to eat fruit and sweetmeats; that after the repast, 32 wild asses were brought in, when the king amused himself for some time by firing at them, both with bullets and arrows, and having wounded some, he afterwards permitted the ambassadors, and other lords, to do the same; that it was no small diversion to see these asses with a number of arrows sticking in them, and, from the pain they felt, biting and rolling over each other; that when they were all killed and laid before the king they were sent to the royal kitchen at Ispahan; the Persians setting so great a value on the flesh of these wild asses that they have a proverb expressive of it. But it does not appear that these 32 wild asses were all taken in the forests, and therefore it is probable they were asses brought up in large parks, for the pleasure of hunting and eating them.

Neither asses nor horses were found in America, although the climate of South America is perfectly consonant with their natures. Those which the Spaniards have transported from Europe, and left in large islands, and on the Continent, have greatly multiplied. In some parts they are found in troops, and are taken in snares like wild horses.

The he-ass with the mare produce large mules, and the horse with the she-ass produce small mules, differing from the first in many respects; but as we shall treat of mules in a particular chapter, we shall finish the history of the ass with that of its properties, and the uses to which the animal may be put.

As wild asses are unknown in these climates we cannot in reality say whether their flesh is or is not good to eat; but it is certain, that the flesh of the domestic ass is extremely bad, and harder than that of the horse. Galen says, that it is a pernicious aliment, and occasions diseases. The milk of the ass, on the contrary, is an approved and specific remedy for certain complaints and its use has been transmitted to us from the Greek. To have it good we should chuse a young healthy she-ass, full of flesh, that has lately foaled, and has not since been with the male: the young one should be taken from her, and care must be taken to feed her well with hay, oats, barley, and grass, whose qualities may have an influence on the disease, with particular care not to let the milk cool, nor even to expose it to the air, which will spoil it in a little time. The ancients also attributed great virtue to the blood, &c. of the ass, but which experience has not confirmed.