re a mighty element in determining the issue of
the contest. The battles of these momentous campaigns represented, not
only a struggle between the Christian Aryans and the Semitic followers
of Mahomet, but, in quite as great a degree, the war was waged between
the light and agile steeds of the Orient and the massive and powerful
animals that bore the mail-clad warriors of the West. On the field of
Tours, when the fate of Christian Europe for hours hung in the
balance, we may well believe that the strong and enduring horses of
the northern cavalry did much to give victory to our race.

Along with our general account of the place of the horse in
civilization, it is fit to give something to the story of his near,
though inferior, kinsmen, the ass and the mule, both of which have
played a subordinate, though important, part in the same field of
endeavor in which the nobler species has done so much for man. The
original progenitors of our donkeys differed from the ancestral form
of the horse by variations of good specific value. So far as we can
determine from visible features, these forms were more distinctly
parted than the dog and the wolf, or either of these animals from the
jackal. Nevertheless, these equine forms are clearly closely akin, for
they may be bred together. Although the original stock of the ass may
possibly have been lost, it seems most likely that the wild forms
which exist in Asia have not wandered off from captivity, but are the
remnants of the original wilderness form.

It appears likely that the two domesticated equine species have been
under the care of man for about the same length of time; but the
difference in their condition, and in the place which they hold in
civilization, is very great. As we have seen, the horse has been made
to vary in a singular measure, its form and other qualities changing to
meet the need or fancy of its master. Its humbler kinsman has remained
almost unchanged. Except small differences in size, the donkeys in
different parts of the world are singularly alike. In part this lack of
change may be explained by the relative neglect with which this species
has been treated. From the point of view of the breeder it has perhaps
been the least cared for of any of our completely domesticated animals.
In some parts of the world, as for instance in Spain, where a
long-continued effort has been made to develop the animal for
interbreeding with the horse, the result shows that the f