or Zoolosaical Recollectio7is, 319 



'to 



than the horse. He is now much deteriorated, for want of 

 care, since the introduction of canals and railroads. 



Low as this useful animal may be held in estimation, by the 

 natives of the colder regions of the north, where he is pro- 

 verbial for his stupidity and obstinacy; yet, in the genial 

 warmth of his native plains, where the horse is enfeebled, 

 and unfit for laborious services, he is of large size, active, 

 and vigorous. In Asia he is worshiped for his patience 

 and humility; and, for these virtues, has a festival to his 

 honour. The city of Jerusalem (Isaiah, xxxii. 14*.), in its 

 desolation, was compared, by the prophet, to a joy of wild 

 asses. And in Job, xxxix. 5 — 8., his native and untame- 

 able wildness is beautifully described : — " Who hath sent out 

 the wild ass free ? or, who hath loosed the bands of the wild 

 ass ? whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren 

 land for his dwelling. He scorneth the multitude of the 

 city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The 

 range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after 

 every green thing." The wild ass of the mountains, here so 

 exquisitely portrayed, may be, in all probability, the zebra. 



The ass is .said to be extremely curious in the selection of 

 his food ; whence an irresolute person is compared to the ass 

 who perished for want between two pottles of hay, not having 

 courage to determine which to fasten upon first,* As a 

 domestic quadruped he is of early record ; for Anak, the de- 

 scendant of Esau, is said to have found the mules in the wilder- 

 ness, as he fed the asses of Zebim, his father. Horace has 

 said, that only the hoof of the mule could contain the waters 

 of the Styx. 



To this quadruped alone, of all those which are under the 

 dominion of man, was once bestowed the powers of the 

 human voice and reasoning, for the purpose of rebuking 

 Balaam ; who, not perceiving the angel which stood before 

 and interrupted him in his passage, smote the ass in anger. 

 The animal, who had seen the angel stand before him in a 

 narrow pass, and had attempted to escape, appealed to the 

 justice and feelings of his master as an excuse for his conduct: — - 

 " What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me 

 these three times ? Am not I thine ass, upon which thou 

 hast ridden, ever since I was thine, unto this day ? and was 

 I ever wont to do so unto thee ?" (Numbers, xxii. 30.) 



The ass was honoured by bearing upon his back the 



* " Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I might water 

 an ass at it." ( Troilus and Cressidtty act 3. sc. 5.) 



The nicety of this animal, with regard to the water it drinks, is well 

 known. It will refuse to touch what a horse would drink greedily. — S. H, 



