nd silky about its hair, which is sleek to the touch. Its powers of
sight vie in precision and accuracy with those of man; it is rather
larger than our largest domestic donkeys, and is possessed of
extraordinary courage. If it is surprised by any chance, it defends
itself against the most dangerous wild beasts with remarkable success;
the rapidity of its movements can only be compared with the flight of
birds; an onager, sir, would run the best Arab or Persian horses to
death. According to the father of the conscientious Doctor Niebuhr,
whose recent loss we are deploring, as you doubtless know, the ordinary
average pace of one of these wonderful creatures would be seven thousand
geometric feet per hour. Our own degenerate race of donkeys can give no
idea of the ass in his pride and independence. He is active and spirited
in his demeanor; he is cunning and sagacious; there is grace about the
outlines of his head; every movement is full of attractive charm. In
the East he is the king of beasts. Turkish and Persian superstition even
credits him with a mysterious origin; and when stories of the prowess
attributed to him are told in Thibet or in Tartary, the speakers mingle
Solomon's name with that of this noble animal. A tame onager, in short,
is worth an enormous amount; it is well-nigh impossible to catch them
among the mountains, where they leap like roebucks, and seem as if they
could fly like birds. Our myth of the winged horse, our Pegasus, had its
origin doubtless in these countries, where the shepherds could see the
onager springing from one rock to another. In Persia they breed asses
for the saddle, a cross between a tamed onager and a she-ass, and they
paint them red, following immemorial tradition. Perhaps it was this
custom that gave rise to our own proverb, 'Surely as a red donkey.' At
some period when natural history was much neglected in France, I think a
traveler must have brought over one of these strange beasts that endures
servitude with such impatience. Hence the adage. The skin that you
have laid before me is the skin of an onager. Opinions differ as to the
origin of the name. Some claim that _Chagri_ is a Turkish word; others
insist that _Chagri_ must be the name of the place where this animal
product underwent the chemical process of preparation so clearly
described by Pallas, to which the peculiar graining that we admire is
due; Martellens has written to me saying that _Chaagri_ is a river----"

"I th