2. By the horns. The longest horns of the chamois are only nine inches: those of the ibex are three feet. The horns of the ibex incline backward, over the hinder parts of the animal; those of the chamois, contrary to the horns of most animals, stand forward, are inclined outward, and bend backward into a hook at their extremities. The horns of the chamois are round: those of the ibex are grooved. 3. The female of the chamois has four teats: the female ibex has only two.

4. The ibex taken young may be domesticated:

which the chamois cannot be.

5. The ibex has one young one: the chamois has two.

6. The ibex is bearded: the chamois is not.

Our translators have inserted the chamois, where it is evidently improper, Deut. xiv. 5. The Hebrew word is tsamor; which the Lxx render cameleopardalis; to this the Vulgate agrees, and what is extraordinary the Arabic says the same, rendering ziraffe. The ziraffe, or giraffe, however, being native of the torrid zone, and southern Africa, is equally unlikely, from its attachment to hot countries, to be abundant in Judea, and used as an article of food, as the cha

mois, which inhabits the chilly regions of mountains only, and seeks their most retired shades, to shelter it from the warmth of summer: preferring those cool retreats where snow and ice prevail. It is probable we must yet wait for a decisive opinion respecting this animal, the tsamor, but, I think the class of antelopes bids fairest to contain it, though Mr. Parkhurst rather inclines to seek it among the goat kinds; and that it may be called tsamor, which signifies to cut off, or to prune, from its browsing on the shoots and twigs of plants, whereby it prunes or breaks them off. At any rate the tzamor must have been a common animal in Syria; as we can by no means suppose the sacred legislator would prohibit from being used as food, a creature hardly seen from century to century, and of which the nature and history were at best but dubious, and barely to be ascertained, even among naturalists: which was the case with the cameleopardalis, whose very existence was admitted with hesitation, an hundred years ago, though its figure appears on certain ancient medals, and on the Prenesfine pavement. Vide FRAGMENT, No. 288, and Plate.

I have occasionally questioned on the subject, that the onagers, or wild asses, known by all Asiatics under the name of koulan, are still very numerous in the deserts of Great Tartary; and come annually in great troops, which spread themselves in the mountainous deserts, east and north of lake Aral. Here they pass the summer, and assemble in the autumn by hundreds, and even by thousands, in order for their return toward India; where they seek an asylum against winter. A passage of Barboza [Ramusio, Voy. vol. i. p. 300.] seems to trace this migration even to the south of India; but certainly Persia is the ordinary retreat of the troops of onagers, and in the mountains around Casbin they are found at all times of the year... All my endeavours to procure one failed... to the care of the late professor Gmelin, who died on his return from this expedition, we owe our knowledge of the true onager: especially from a female and a colt which his attendants brought to Petersburg.

"The Persians call this animal kourhan, and ischaki, or mountain ass; because he prefers the most arid deserts of the mountains. They, as well as the Tartars, hunt it in various manners: the Tartars for the sake of its flesh, which is considered as delicious ; but the Persians, in order to take it alive, as young onagers so taken sell for a high price to the great men of the country, for their studs.

"From the stock of these tamed onagers proceeds that noble race of asses which serve for the saddle in

carry

Persia, Arabia, and Egypt. They are sold for 75 ducats; and Tavernier, [lib. iv. cap. 3.] says, that ine ones are sold in Persia dearer than horses, even to 100 crowns each. He well distinguishes them from the baser race of ordinary asses, which serve to loads: and the strange whim which the Persians still retain, according to him, of painting these addle asses red, as is also practised in Egypt, with benna, seems to explain the fanciful red headed asses of India, of which Elian speaks, [Hist. Anim. lib. iv. ap. 5.] Le Bruyn and Adanson have not less commended these saddle asses, the issue of onagers, and all travellers into the Levant have praised them. Like the wild onager, these asses of the superior race are extremely swift and rapid in their course; of a slenJer form, and an animated gait.

"The quality which principally renders them esteemed, is their support of fatigue, much better than the horses of the Tartars; and they are quicker than camels. Mr. Niebuhr states the progress of a saddle ass when walking a steady pace, at 1750 double paces of a man, in half an hour; whereas the larger camels make only 975, and the smaller at most 1500, Voy. Arab. p. 311.

"The animal which we had at Petersburg, which had been caught when very young, though of small stature, and probably stinted in growth by its captivity, and by want of suitable food, travelled from Astrachan to Moscow, 1400 werstes, with the ordinary post, without any other repose than that of a few nights; she also travelled from Moscow to Petersbarg, 730 werstes, and did not seem to have suffered by this journey; though she died in the autumn Following, apparently from the effect of the herbage of a marshy soil, and the cold and humidity of so northrn a climate. She had nothing of the dulness and stupidity of the common ass. The onagers are animals adapted to running, and of such swiftness that the best horses cannot equal them... All the ancient riters do justice to their swiftness; and their Hebrew name, parad, expresses this quality. As the onagers prefer the craggy mountains, they run with ase on the most difficult ground... the soft soil of Petersburg was soon prejudicial to our onager, whose hoofs cracked, and fell away in shivers. "The Nomades of Asia report of these onagers, that the first of a troop which sees a serpent, makes certain cry, which brings all his companions around him; when each of them strives to destroy the serpent instantly. They do the same to beasts of prey. The troops of onagers are conducted by a leading llion. They have their sight, hearing, and smelling,. qually good, so that it is impossible to approach them an open country. . . The female onager, I remarked, often passed two days without drinking, esecially in moist weather, or when very heavy dews She also preferred brackish water to fresh;

and never drank of what was troubled. She loved bread sprinkled with salt, and sometimes would eat a handful of salt. I was told, that when at Derbent, she always ran to drink of the Caspian sea, though fresh water was nearer to her. She also selected plants impregnated with saline particles... or those of bitter juices. She loved raw cucumbers; and some herbs which she refused when green pleased her when dried. She would not touch odoriferous, or marsh plants, nor even thistles. I was informed, that the Persians when taming the young onagers, feed them with rice, barley, straw, and bread. Our animal was extremely familiar, and followed persons who took care of her, freely, and with a kind of attachment. The smell of bread strongly attracted her; but, if any attempt was made to lead her against her will, she showed all the obstinacy of the ass: neither would she suffer herself to be approached behind, and if touched by a stick, or by the hand, on her hinder parts, she would kick; and this action was accompanied by a slight grumbling, as expressive of complaint.

The male onager, which was bought at the same time as the female, but which died in the voyage from Derbent to Astrachan, was larger, and less docile. His length, from the nape of the neck to the origin of his tail was 5 feet; his height in front, 4 feet 4 inches: behind, 4 feet 7 inches; his head 2 feet in length; his ears 1 foot; his tail, including the tuft at the end, 2 feet 3 inches. He was more robust than the female; and had a bar, or streak, crossing at his shoulders; as well as that streak which runs along the back, which is common to both sexes. Some Tartars have assured me that they have seen this cross bar double in some males.

Our onager was higher on her legs than the common ass; her legs also were more slender than those of the ass; and she resembled a young filly: she could also scratch her neck and head easily with her hind foot. She was weak on her fore legs; but, behind, she could very well support the heaviest man. Notwithstanding her state of exhaustion, she carried her head higher than the ass, her ears well elevated, and showed a vivacity in all her motions. The colour of the hair on the greater part of the body, and the end of the nose, is silvery white; the upper part of the head, the sides of the neck, and the body, are flaxen, or pale isabella colour; this colour does not spread over the front legs, but along the thighs, to the middle joint. The mane is deep brown; it com. mences between the ears, and reaches to the shoulders; its hair is soft, woolly, 3 or 4 inches long, like the mane of a young filly. The coat in general, especially in winter, is more silky and softer than that of horses, and resembles that of a camel. The Arabs, no less than the Tartars, esteem the flesh of the onager; and the Arab writers, who permit the eating of

its flesh, make the same difference between this ass and the domestic ass, as the Hebrews did, whose law did not permit the coupling of the onager with the she ass, as being of different kinds.

The skins of the onagers are sought by the Bukharians, for the making of shagreen. Rauwolf says the same of those of Syria, whose skins are brought to Tripoli." Such is the account of the celebrated professor, and such his description of an animal, of which he was the first to communicate correct information to the learned of Europe.

Let us now attend to some of those passages, which imply distinct kinds of asses in the Hebrew Scrip

ture.

1st, Chamor, is the common name for an ass; such as is employed in labour, carriage, and domestic services. Vide Gen. xxii. 3. Abraham saddled his ass, chamor: xxx. 43. Jacob had many asses: xxxvi. 24. Anah fed the asses of his father, et al. freq.

2dly, The wild ass called para, Job xi. 12. "Vain man would be wise, though he be born a wild ass's colt," [wavy oir para.] The more wild the crea ture here mentioned may be supposed, the greater opposition to wisdom is expressed by the simile. If this be fact, very strong indeed is the character attributed to Ishmael, Gen. xvi. 12. " he shall be a wild ass man, [x para Adam,] not merely a wild man, as in our translation, but a man rough, untaught, libertine, as a wild ass. Nor perhaps is this all; but it may imply further, that as the wild ass loves to be at the head of his troop, to order and govern it, so shall Ishmael be desirous of supremacy, and brook no rival. [Vide FRAGMENT, No. 482.]

The wild ass, para, is said "not to bray over grass," green grass, desha, Job vi. 5. and we may Connect with this by contrast, the description of a drought by the prophet Jeremiah, xiv. 6. "Insomuch that the hind [female stag] dropped her calf, in the forest field, and forsook it; to such a degree was green grass, desha, wanting: and the wild asses, paraim, stood on the rising grounds, blowing cut their breath like taninim, [vide on Lam. iv.] while their eyes failed because there was no vegetable of any kind." Both these passages seem to imply, that the wild ass feeds in silence, principally on grass, and usually in plenty. That this para is a creature roaming at large, in the forests, appears from Job xxxix. 5. "who dismissed the wild uss to his liberty? and the chains of the orud, who struck off?" This orud will engage our inquiries hereafter.

We have this word in a feminine form, pareh, Jer. ii. 24. "A female wild ass, used to [lit. learned in] the wilderness, in her desire SЯuffeth up the wind of her occasion: who can turn her away? all who seek her, shall they not be tired? in her month they may find her."

Job, xxiv. 5. says paraim, "male wild asses go forth in the desert:" and the Psalmist, civ. 11. says,

the springs of water run among the hills [or mountains] the paraim, wild asses, quench their thirst at them. The prophet Isaiah describes excessive desolation, by saying, the wild asses, paraim, shall rejoice where a city had stood, chap. xxxii. 14. The whole of this evidence attaches to a creature roaming at liberty, in the desert, or on mountains, feeding on grass, blowing out its breath when vexed, and of such swiftness as to weary every pursuer, yet to be found in her, [return to her former state, i.e. after the occasion which impels her to such friskiness is over. This seems to be at least as rational, as our rendering of month: for what month is meant, and what has any month to do with this creature? her pregnancy lasts more than a month: and after delivery does she keep a month? Surely not.]

But, there is another kind of ass, called in Hebrew atun, alunuth; may the same informant contribute to ascertain this also? for we find, that the breed, or immediate descendant of the wild ass, who indeed is caught alive for the purpose of obtaining a breed, is excessively valued by the great men of the East, and forms an object of their researches, for their own personal dignity and accommodation. In fact, the high price of these asses excludes them from the purchase of the commonality, and restricts the possession of them to the great or the affluent.

Our second breed of asses, we find then, is called atun, atunuth. Now let us examine how Scripture alludes to these. Gen. xii, 16. Abraham had atunuth. Numb. xxii. 23. Balaam rode on an atun; and we find, from information noted above, that the breed from the onager is very fit for performing a long journey, like that of Balaam; that this kind of ass is endowed with vigorous faculties, so as to discern obstacles readily, is also obstinate to excess, when beaten behind, or when put out of its way, or when at tempted to be controlled against its will; and that at the sight of danger it emits a kind of cry: it is also familiar, and attached to its master: these particulars agree correctly with certain incidents in the history of Balaam's ass.

We find Deborah, Judg. v. 10. addressing those "who rode on WHITE asses; those who sit in judg ment;" men of dignity, no doubt. Agreeably to this, our extract informs us, that the onager is of a silvery white, for the most part, and we ought to observe, that the word rendered white occurs also, and only, Ezek. xxvii. 18. "white wool;" now the colour of this kind of wool, seems to correspond exactly to the colour of the animal described by Gmelin: silvery while. N.B. This corrects an error in Harmer, vol. ii. p. 68.

From 1 Chron. xxvii. 30. we learn that David had an officer expressly appointed to superintend his alunuth; not his ordinary asses, but his asses of a noble race; which implies at least equal dignity in this officer as in his colleagues, mentioned with him.