"The same province breeds another beast called Zebre by the inhabitants, the which is like unto a mule, but it ingenders. Finally, the disposition of the haire is very strange; for from the ridge of the backe to the bellie, there are lines or strikes of three colours, white, blacke, and yellow, all being ordered by a just proportion, and every strike being of the breadth of three fingers. These beasts multiplie greatly, for that they have young every yeare. They are wild, and exceeding swift; so as the Portugals among their proverbs, have that of the swiftnesse of the Zebre. This beast being made tame, might serve for a horse in the war, bearing and drawing men and burdens, to the end we may see how God hath provided for things necessarie. But for that this countrie wants horses, and the inhabitants have not the art to make the Zabre tame, nor know how to use oxen, notwithstanding they have many in these countries: the men do the office of beasts; for being set at the corners of streets or highwaies, they carrie litters or chaires: so as they that are to make a journey speedily, change the men often that carrie them, and by this meanes they soone dispatch the way they are to go."
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The Realme of Congo / The Qualitie (p. 1099)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Davity
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Pierre Davity
1573 – 1635
Pierre Davity (or d'Avity, styled Sieur de Montmartin; 1573–1635) was a French soldier and writer of compilations, today little known. His account of Senegal was plagiarised by Olfert Dapper in his Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Eylanden (1668).
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