“The white asses of Bagdad are much esteemed in the east,” says Mr. Layard. “Some are of considerable size, and, when fancifully dyed with henna, their tails and ears bright red, and their bodies spotted like an heraldic talbot with the same color, they bear the chief priests and the men of the law, as they appear to have done from the earliest times. The judges of England, before the reign of Mary, were accustomed, not to ride upon horses, but mules. Cardinal Wolsey rode a mule, as did also other dignified ecclesiastics of his age.