[Sca-cooks] Onagers

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> I've got no idea where the quote comes from, as I didn't put it forward.
It
> appears the onager is very fast and difficult to hunt from horseback,
which
> may have provided the basis for the quote.  Here's a little site that I
> found of interest:
>
> http://www.arabianwildlife.com/archive/vol1.2/onager.htm
>
> Bear

May have come from me- I was quoting somethjing I read many years ago, when
I was studying horses- it may not be entirely accurate, but the critters ARE
pretty fast. Apparently, great guile was needed to hunt them, because you
weren't going to run them down.

Anyway, I've long since learned that the only bigger liars than horsemen
about the speed of their horses, are fishermen about the size of their fish
;-)

I know why the idea stuck in my head- I was seriously, at one time,
considering crossing an onager with a race horse, see what kind of racing
mule I could get. Figured I'd try with an Arab, see what kind of endurance
mule I got, as well as a Quarterhorse, a Thoroughbred, and a draft horse,
and train the foals to their specialties, see what kind of results I had.
Unfortunately the money ran out, and I had to sell my stock, or I might have
seen what I could come up with, but even before then, the idea had faded
soimewhat, when I was made aware of the intractibility of purebreds and
crosses of wild equids.

One story in particular, told of a guy in Ohio, who, through mysterious
means, managed to purchase himself a young zebra, intending to teach it to
drive. He did eventually manage, but only by hitching the zebra in troika
between two large and cranky draft horses, one of which would reach over and
bite the zebra every time it became too troublesome ;-) He swore, though,
that that zebra never did pull an ounce of weight- the best he could ever
get it to do was be dragged along reasonably quietly.

OTOH, reading that article that Bear found (I had just found it and read it
myself when I saw his posting) I noticed, that, unlike the horse and
domesticated ass, the onager was considered halal. Quoting the one website,

http://www.arabianwildlife.com/archive/vol1.2/onager.htm  :

"Hunted Onagers

"From earliest times the onager was regarded as a game animal rather than as
a potential beast of burden. Bas-reliefs uncovered at the capital of ancient
Assyria, Nineveh, depict the hunting expeditions of King Ashurbanipal around
650 BC, and one slab in particular shows two of the king's servants lasooing
an onager. They must have been especially skilful and lucky huntsmen because
this boastful carving shows the rest of the asses escaping and outdistancing
their pursuers with ease. The humbler inhabitants of the region were less
chivalrous, for they were hunting for the pot and concentrated on taking the
young onagers in the spring foaling season.

"Onagers were probably hunted for their meat from the time man first
inhabited the different regions of the Middle East. Xenophon, who lived from
about 434-355 BC was an Athenian soldier, historian and writer who spent a
number of years in the Middle East. He reported that the onager was killed
for its meat which was said to be of more delicate flavour than deer.

"In 1905 the English excavator of Nineveh, Sir Austen Layard, reported that
the Bedouin "bring the foals up with milk in their tents...They are of a
light fawn colour, almost pink. The Arabs still eat their flesh". Eating the
flesh of the wild ass is permitted (halal) to Muslims because it was
considered to be a game animal. The meat of the domestic ass was forbidden
as was that of the horse."

So, tell me, folks, those of you who are studying the Arab and Islamic
cultures, where comes the defintions of halal for Islam, as opposed to the
kosher traditions of the Jews? Jews define edible animals as having doubled
hooves, but this is obviously not the case with wild asses, which would be
treif to Jews. What causes the split here?

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....



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