The mule lives for a number of years. There are on record
cases of mules living to the age of eighty, as did one in Athens at
the time of the building of the temple; this mule on account of its
age was let go free, but continued to assist in dragging burdens,
and would go side by side with the other draught-beasts and
stimulate them to their work; and in consequence a public decree was
passed forbidding any baker driving the creature away from his
bread-tray. The she-mule grows old more slowly than the mule. Some
assert that the she-mule menstruates by the act of voiding her
urine, and that the mule owes the prematurity of his decay to his
habit of smelling at the urine. So much for the modes of generation in
connexion with these animals.
25
Breeders and trainers can distinguish between young and old
quadrupeds. If, when drawn back from the jaw, the skin at once goes
back to its place, the animal is young; if it remains long wrinkled
up, the animal is old.
26
The camel carries its young for ten months, and bears but one at
a time and never more; the young camel is removed from the mother when
a year old.
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