Note 62 — III. HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE REALM OF PERSIA.

Wild asses are found in the dry regions from the frontiers of Syria to the Runn of Cutch, and north to 48° lat. Ferrier mentions herds of hundreds between Mushid and Herat, and on the banks of the Khashrood, south of Herat. “They are fleet as deer,” he says. Their flesh is more delicate than Persian beef, and the Afghans consider it a great delicacy, as did the old Roman epicures. This species, as I learn from a note with which Mr. Moore, of the India Museum, has kindly favoured me, is Asinus Onager, the Kulan or Ghor-khar of the Persians. That of Syria and Northern Arabia is the Asinus Hemippus, the Hemionus of the ancients; whilst the Kyang or Jiggetai (Equus Hemionus of Pallas, E. Polyodon of Hodgson) inhabits Tibet and thence northward to southern Siberia; and the true wild ass (E. asinus) is indigenous to north-eastern Africa, and perhaps to south Arabia and the island of Socotra.