Malleability is a distinguishing quality of some metals, and means the capability of being extended into thin plates or leaves by hammering. It depends upon the union of softness and tenacity; the particles shift their position without separating. The chief malleable metals are gold, silver, copper, iron, zinc at the temperature of boiling water, and lead. Gold may be reduced to leaves so thin as to be translucent.-Adapted from Chambers's 'Matter and Motion.'

NATURAL HISTORY SECTION.

THE ASS.

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F there were no horses, the ass would be well-used enough, and then he would be far more valuable than he is. Even now he has certain advantages over the horse. He is less fiery and proud, less nice in his tastes, and far less delicate in constitution. He is very grateful for the meanest stable and the coarsest food; endures suffering with wonderful fortitude; is certainly more susceptible of strong attachment than the horse. He is not so handsome, though when he is well-groomed and decked with a good suit of harness he is far from being an uncomely beast. One must not judge by an ass which has been fed on tea-leaves and chaff, and has had a broomstick for his curry-comb. Compare him with one which has been well-used, and the difference is really wonderful.

The ass is seen in perfection in Eastern countries only. We are all happily familiar with the Book which tells how the Hebrew patriarchs, prophets, and judges rode upon asses; and how One higher far than patriarch and prophet rode into His capital city, "riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass," to signify that, though King of kings, He came to bring peace unto his people. The ass is not a despised animal in the East; it has much strength, symmetry, and beauty. "The asses of Arabia," says an Eastern traveller, "are perhaps the handsomest animals in the world; their coat is smooth and clean; they carry the head elevated, and have fine and well-formed legs, which they throw out gracefully in walking or galloping. They are used only for the saddle, and are imported in vast numbers into Persia, where they are frequently sold for 400 livres;

and being taught a kind of easy, ambling pace, are richly caparisoned and used only by the rich and luxurious nobles."

The wild ass is common in many parts of Central Asia, and there only. The animals migrate according to the season: in summer as far as Lake Aral, in winter as far as India. In these migrations they always follow a recognized leader.

The wild ass has a short erect mane of rather woolly hair, and a coat of uniformly silvery grey, with a broad coffee-coloured stripe running down the back to the end of the tail, and a transverse line of the same coming down the shoulder. (You know, I hope, that there is a similar cross on our English variety.) Lastly, it has longer legs, and carries its head higher than the domestic ass.

In Persia its flesh is accounted a great delicacy, only the animal is by no means easy to catch, as the following extract from Porter's Travels will prove :

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My greyhound suddenly started off in pursuit of an animal which my Persians said, from the glimpse they had of it, was an antelope. I instantly set spurs to my horse, and with my attendants gave chase. After an unrelaxed gallop of full three miles we came upon the dog, who was then within a short stretch of the creature which he pursued, and to my surprise, and at first vexation, I saw it to be an ass. Upon a moment's reflection, however, judging from its fleetness that it must be a wild one-a creature little known in Europe, but which the Persians prize as an object of the chase,-I determined on approaching it, as closely as the very swift Arab steed, on which I was mounted, would carry me; but the single instant of checking my horse to consider, had given our game such a head of us that, notwithstanding all our speed, we could not recover our ground on him. I, however, happened to be considerably before my companions, when, at a certain distance, the animal, in its turn, made a pause, and allowed me to approach within pistol-shot of him. He then darted off again with the quickness of thought, capering, kicking

and sporting in his flight, as if he were not blown in the least, and the chase were his pastime. When my Persian followers came up they regretted that I had not shot the creature when he was within my aim, telling me that his flesh was regarded in Persia as a great delicacy. The prodigious swiftness and peculiar manner in which he fled across the plain above all reminded me of the striking portrait drawn by the author of the Book of Job (ch. xxxix.).”

In modern times the horse has almost disappeared from Egypt; the animals most in use are the ass and the camel. The natives of Cairo seem to have got the idea that a Frank, as they call all Europeans, is incapable of walking; and accordingly whenever they see one in the streets, they jump at once to the conclusion that he is seeking a donkey, and the donkey-boys follow him closely, shouting the merits of their respective beasts. There is no escape; you are almost torn to pieces as they seize you to make you mount; and when donkey-boy No. I. has beaten donkey-boys Nos. II., III., &c. &c., and has put you on his beast, the discomfited ones will sometimes lay hold of you and try to drag you off.

But let us suppose you are mounted, and left in peace. The donkey you are on is generally smaller than the English ones, but very strong and easy going. He is not in "his native hues" as in England, but painted according to his owner's fancy. Stripes, to make him look like a Zebra, are common, but not so common as purple sides and a yellow belly. The driver goes behind brandishing a thick stick.

Well, you have escaped the danger from the contending donkey-drivers, and are under way. Now comes danger No. 2: you go through the crowded bazaars; the donkey refusing to be guided. The driver behind shouts and applies his stick, and away you pelt through the mass of other donkeys, camels, carts, water-carriers, and people in general. You shout "Stop!" "Enough!" with desperate earnestness; and the driver in return shouts, Give him his head." Now your head comes just under a cross-rail;

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then your donkey's knee is planted in the small of a fat Turk's back; you have a narrow squeak of upsetting a fruit-stand; you rush into a company of white masked women, sending them flying in all directions, as the fast riders do the quiet ones in Rotten Row in the London season, until you finally reach some quiet street, feeling like a man who has stormed a battery. Meanwhile the driver has been running behind, crying out at every emergency"The howadji comes!" Take care on the right hand!" "Take care on the left hand!" "Take care, O man!" “Take care, O maiden!" "O boy, get out of the way!" "The howadji comes!" For the boys have strong lungs, and no donkey of any pretension to respectability will think of letting another donkey pass him.

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"It is a very great mistake," says Mr. Wood, "to employ the name of ass or donkey as a metaphor for stupidity, for the ass is truly one of the cleverest of our domesticated animals, and will lose no opportunity of displaying his capability whenever his intelligence is allowed to expand, by being freed from the crushing toil and constant pain that are too often the concomitants of a donkey's life. Every one who has petted a favourite donkey will remember many traits of its mental capacities; for, as in the case of the domesticated fool of the olden days, there is far more knavery than folly about the creature.

"One of these animals was lately detected in a most ingenious theft. A number of rabbits were kept in a little outhouse, and inhabited a set of hutches fastened to the wall. One day it was found that nearly all the store of oats had suddenly vanished from the outhouse without any visible reason. Next morning, however, the donkey who lived in an adjoining meadow was seen to open the gate which led into his field, and cautiously shut it after him. This conduct afforded a clue to the disappearance of the oats, and upon a careful search being made his footmarks were traced along the path to the rabbit-house, and even on the ground among the hutches. It was very clear