Though the ass is frequently the subject of ill treatment, yet it seems to be an animal not without affection for its master, which in many cases we may suppose to be returned by kindness and care on his part. A pleasing instance to this effect we have in the following anecdote: "An old man, who some time ago sold vegetables in London, had an ass which carried his baskets from door to door. He frequently gave the poor industrious creature a handful of hay, or some pieces of bread or greens, by way of refreshment and reward. The old man had no need of any goad for the animal, and seldom, indeed, had he to lift up his hand to drive it on. His kind treatment was one day remarked to him, and he was asked whether the beast was not apt to be stubborn. 'Ah!' he said, 'it is of no use to be cruel; and as for stubbornness, I cannot complain, for he is ready to do any thing or go any where. I bred him myself. He is sometimes skittish and playful, and once ran away from me: you will hardly believe it, but there were more than fifty people after him, attempting in vain to stop him; yet he turned back of himself, and never stopped till he ran his head kindly into my bosom.'"
The following is a pleasing anecdote of the sagacity of the ass, and the attachment displayed by the animal to his master. Thomas Brown travelled in England as a pedler, having an ass the partner of his trade. From suffering under paralysis, he was in the habit of assisting himself on the road by keeping hold of the crupper of the saddle, or more frequently the tail of the ass. During a severe winter some years ago, whilst on one of his journeys, the old man and his ass were suddenly plunged into a wreath of snow. There they lay far from help, and ready to perish.
At last, after a severe struggle, the poor ass got out; but, finding his unfortunate master absent, he eyed the snow-bank some time with a wistful look, and at last forced his way through it to where his master lay, when, placing his body in such a position as to allow him to lay a firm hold on his tail, the honest pedler was enabled to grasp it, and was actually dragged out by the faithful beast to a place of safety!
THE ZEBRA.
The zebra possesses some of the characteristics of the horse;—smaller in size, it strongly resembles it in the shape of its body, its head, its limbs, and its hoofs. It moves in the same paces, with a similar activity and swiftness. But it discovers none of that docility which has rendered the services of the horse so invaluable to man. On the contrary, it is proverbially untamable; it is ever the most wild even among those ferocious animals which are ranged in the menagerie, and it preserves in its countenance the resolute determination never to submit.
In the year 1803, General Dundas brought a female zebra from the Cape of Good Hope, which was deposited in the Tower, and there showed less than the usual impatience of subordination. The person who had accompanied her home, and attended her there, would sometimes spring on her back, and proceed thus for about two hundred yards, when she would become restive, and oblige him to dismount. She was very irritable, and would kick at her keeper. One day she seized him with her teeth, threw him down, and showed an intention to destroy him, which he disappointed by rapidly extricating himself. She generally kicked in all directions with her feet, and had a propensity to seize with her teeth whatever offended her. Strangers she would not allow to approach her, unless the keeper held her fast by the head, and even then she was very prone to kick.
The most docile zebra on record was burnt at the Lyceum, near Exeter 'Change. This animal allowed its keeper to use great familiarities with it,—to put children on its back, without discovering any resentment. On one occasion, a person rode it from the Lyceum to Pimlico. It had been bred in Portugal, and was the offspring of parents half reclaimed.
The zebra of the plain differs from the other species in having the ground color of the body white, the mane alternately striped with black and white, and the tail of a yellowish white. A specimen of this animal was a few years since in the Tower of London, where it was brought to a degree of tameness seldom reached by the other variety. It ran peaceably about the Tower, with a man by its side, whom it did not attempt to leave except for the purpose of breaking off to the canteen, where it was sometimes regaled with a glass of ale, a liquor for which it discovered a considerable fondness.