If horses be well treated, and properly attended to, they will sometimes live to the age of fifty years; but, during great part of this time, they are generally so decrepid as to be unable to perform any services whatever for their owners. To ascertain the age of a horse, reference is generally had to the teeth. Deeply sunk eye-pits are usually considered a criterion, though not an infallible one, of an old horse; and, for colts or young horses, attention must be paid to the appearance of their coat, and of the hairs of the mane and tail, as it is not until they have changed their first teeth that any correct judgment of their age can be formed from the mouth. The deceptions of horse-dealers in changing the appearance of the teeth, and in various other particulars relative to the horse, render great caution necessary in the purchase of these animals.
113. The ASS (Equus asinus) is characterized by his tail having long hairs only towards the extremity, and the male having a blackish cross over the shoulders.
Wild asses associate in herds in the mountainous deserts of Tartary, Persia, and India; and also in some parts of Africa.
This animal, which by care and attention, is rendered, in Spain and some other countries, an elegant, tractable, and valuable servant of man, is entirely neglected by us; and, in England, has consequently degenerated into a stupid and inactive beast. The Sacred Writings speak of asses being in general use throughout the Eastern countries, both for the saddle, and as animals of draught and burthen. With the Romans they were in such estimation that Pliny speaks of a male ass having been sold at a price which exceeded 3000l. of our money. In Spain the best asses are sold at very high prices, sometimes as much as 100 guineas and upwards each.
Doomed as it is with us to slavery and ill treatment, we cannot be surprised that the ass, in many instances, should appear a stubborn and intractable animal. But whenever it is well treated, it is remarkable for meekness, patience, and docility; it submits quietly to chastisement, is temperate in its food, and is contented to feed on such vegetables as most other animals would refuse. In proportion to its size, the ass is capable of supporting great fatigue, and of dragging and carrying heavy burthens. Asses are chiefly employed for drawing hucksters' carts, and similar burthens; and, if properly trained, there can be no doubt but they would constitute the cheapest team that could be used. Being more hardy than horses, these animals are preferred to them for journeys across the deserts of Asia. Most of the Musselmen pilgrims use them in their long and laborious journeys to Mecca. In the principal streets of Cairo, asses stand ready saddled for hire, and answer the same purposes as hackney coaches in London. The person who lets an ass accompanies him, running behind to goad him on.
Asses' milk is light, easy of digestion, and so nutritious as to be recommended in many disorders. It is particularly agreeable to the tender stomachs of consumptive persons, is wholesome for young children, and is chiefly drunk whilst warm from the animals; there is a mode of preparing artificial asses' milk with eryngo root, pearl-barley, and liquorice root, boiled in water, and mixed with new cows' milk. In some parts of the Continent asses' milk is occasionally used as a cosmetic.
The flesh of the wild ass is so much esteemed in Persia that it is admitted even to the imperial table. The Persians have an adage expressive of their high opinion of it. Notwithstanding this, the flesh of the domestic ass is so bad as food, that it is said few persons would be able to eat of it. From their hardness and elasticity, the skins of these animals are capable of being used for various purposes. They are manufactured into shoes, heads for drums, and, when varnished over in a peculiar manner, are cut into leaves for pocket-books. The inhabitants of some of the Eastern countries make of asses' skin the substance called sagri or shagreen. At Astracan, and throughout Persia, there are great manufactories of this article. It is not naturally granulated; this roughness being altogether effected by art. Of the bones of the ass the ancients are said to have made their best sounding flutes.
114. The Mule, or mixed produce betwixt the ass and the mare, is a very hardy and useful animal. Its size is larger, its head and ears smaller, and its coat smoother than those of the ass. In countries where the breed of asses is sufficiently large for obtaining mules of considerable size, these are preferred to nearly all animals for cheapness, durability, and general convenience, as beasts of burthen. In England they have never been propagated to any extent; and the few that have been reared in this country have, in general, been the produce of such diminutive parents, as to exhibit only a puny race, by no means calculated for the services of which a well-managed breed would be capable. Yet even these, where they have been used, have been found to possess many very estimable qualities. In the brewhouse of Messrs. Truman, Harford, and Co. of Limehouse, mules were for a little while used in place of the dray-horses which are employed by other brewers. Each dray was drawn by three mules, and carried three butts of beer, a weight precisely the same which the London drays carry with three large horses.
115. The HIPPOPOTAMUS, or RIVER-HORSE (Hippopotamus amphibius), is an African quadruped of immense bulk, with large head, extremely wide mouth, strong teeth, and thick and short legs, each terminated by four hoofs.
The body is of brownish colour, and covered with short and thinly set hair. One of these animals, which M. le Vaillant killed in the South of Africa, measured nearly eleven feet in length, and about nine in circumference.