Note 18 — NOTES.

Onagra, Œigitai and Koulan;—apparently different names for the same animal, varying according to the countries where, it is found and authors who have spoken of it: in shape and structure it holds the midway betwixt the horse and ass; its head is strong and erect in the state of rest; it proudly snuffs the air in its course, which is more fleet than the swiftest horse. Its neck finely turned, chest full and open, back long, spine concave and rough, haunches taper, hoofs like the ass, mane short and thick, the jaw containing thirty-four teeth, tail two feet long, and exactly like a cow’s, shoulders narrow and bare of flesh: it has great suppleness in all its members and motions. The hair is mostly of a yellowish brown; a reddish yellow covers the fore-part of the head, and between the legs; the mane and tail are black. Along the back is a dark-brown stripe, that grows broader from the loins upwards, and becomes narrower towards the tail. In winter its hair is long, curled, waving; in summer short and glossy. These animals stray in numbers over the vast deserts and open plains abounding with saline herbage: they never approach the woods or mountains. They have the senses of hearing and smelling in perfection. Their neighing, somewhat peculiar, is much louder than that of the horse. They are timid and wild, and their chief defence is in their speed; yet they are of a peaceful, social nature. They commonly troop together from twenty to thirty, sometimes a hundred: each troop has its leader that watches over its safety, conducts it, and gives the signal of flight when danger is near. The token of alarm is bounding thrice round the object of their fear. If their leader is killed, (and he frequently is, by approaching closer to the hunters than the rest,) the troop disperses, and it is easy to kill and take them. The Mongou Tartars highly prize the flesh, which they find delicious; but the œigitai has not yet been tamed, even when taken young. Could it be domesticated, it would doubtless be a prime beast for the saddle, but it is of an untameable disposition; when the utmost attempts have been made to subdue them, they have died in breaking rather than submit to the restraint. If our Swiss Robinson succeeded by the extraordinary means he specifies, it was a complete triumph. The name of œigitai, applied to the onagra or wild ass in the countries where it is most common, comes from the word dshiggetei, which in the Tartar language means long ears in fact its ears are very long, but more erect, and better shaped, than those of the ass.