ASPROMONTE ASS doctrines. He was then not 20 years old. In 1805 he was installed pastor of the Gravel Pit chapel, Hackney, where he continued until his death. Mr. Aspland stood for years at the head of the active Unitarian clergy of England. In 1806 he established a religious magazine, the "Monthly Repository," and took the lead in founding the Unitarian fund society for the support of popular preaching and the relief of indigent ministers. In 1815 he established the " Christian Reformer," a monthly magazine of considerable influence. The list of his pub- lications numbers 50, and since his death a vol- ume of sermons and several pamphlets from his pen have been edited by his son. ASPROMONTE, a mountain in the 8. "W. corner of Italy, near Reggio, celebrated for the battle of Aug. 28, 1862, between the Italian troops under Pallavicini and the volunteers of Gari- baldi. The latter, who had crossed over from Sicily to march on Rome, against the warn- ings of the royal government, was defeated, wounded in the foot, and taken prisoner with the larger portion of his men. ASPKOPOTUHO. See ACHELOTJS. ASS (equus asinus), the humblest member of the horse family, known to be of eastern origin. He is first mentioned in Genesis, in the history of Abraham, who, when he went down to Egypt on account of the famine in Palestine, found that Pharaoh was possessed of " sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and man servants, and maid servants, and she asses, and camels." At that time, probably, as was the case during all the historic ages of Greece, a species of ass was wild on the mountains of Syria, Asia Minor, and throughout Persia ; and in the latter country and Armenia, in the re- gion about the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and the shores of Lake Van, it exists in a state of nature to the present day. Asses are mentioned in Xenophon's Anabasis as occur- ring in great numbers in parts of Mesopotamia. These animals, which he simply terms wild asses (&VOL a-ypcoi, of which words the specific Latin name onager is merely a corruption), were in company with ostriches, antelopes, and bustards; they were eagerly pursued by the horsemen of the army, and are described as being possessed of extraordinary speed and endurance. The wild asses of the same country are still possessed of the same characteristics. They have always been the special quarry of the Persian monarchs, and Nadir Shah was in- defatigable in his pursuit of them, and consid- ered the running down of one with his grey- hound a feat equal to the winning of a battle or conquering a province. The flesh was con- sidered the most exquisite of venison. The wild ass of Xenophon, and that, probably iden- tical with it, hunted by the shahs of Persia, is presumably the dziggetai, or equus hemionus of Pallas, which, as its specific name (hemionw, half-ass) indicates, possesses as much of the horse as of the ass in its character and quali- ties. The best breed of ass comes from the East, where he has been long carefully culti- vated as a saddle animal. The rocky nature of the soil and mountainous face of the country in Palestine favored the employment of this Wild Ass (Dziggetai). hard-hoofed, sure-footed, patient, and endur- ing animal, as much as it discouraged that of the delicate, fine-limbed, high-bred courser of Syria and Arabia. Lieut. Col. Smith, who has devoted much attention to the equine families of the East, found near Bassorah a breed of white asses, remarkable for their excellence, which he had reason to believe are of a breed as ancient as the time of the kings of Judah. The characteristics of the ass, as distinguish- ing him from the horse, are : 1, inferiority in size, although doubtless this in European coun- tries is in great part in consequence of centu- ries of cruel treatment, scanty fare, and want - t tea Ass (Asinus vulgaris). of attention in breeding, the animal having been for ages regarded only as the drudge of the poor ; 2, a rougher and more shaggy coat, capable, however, of much improvement by warm keeping and a little grooming; 3, the shortness and stiffness of his pastern .joints, and the hard solidity of his sound upright hoofs, which seem almost incapable of lame- ness, and render him the safest and most sure- footed of animals in difficult mountain passes; 4, the extraordinary length of his ears, resem- bling those of the hare more than those of his own race ; 5, the peculiar cross which he bears on his back, formed by a longitudinal dark stripe along the course of the spine, and a transverse bar across the shoulders, which in-
