726 INTELLIGENCE OF THE ASS. 
donkey-driver who could not produce a medal. The natural consequences followed. The 
public soon took up the idea, the medal-holders carried off all the trade, and the cruel and 
neglectful drivers were either forced to conform to the regulations of the society, or to 
betake themselves and their beasts elsewhere. 
It is a very great mistake to employ the name of Ass or donkey as a metaphor for 
stupidity, for the Ass is truly one of the cleverest of our domesticated animals, and will 
lose no opportunity of displaying his capability whenever his intelligence is allowed to 
expand by being freed from the crashing toil and constant pain that are too often the 
concomitants of a donkey’s lite. Every one who has petted a favourite donkey will 
remember many traits of its mental capacities; for as in the case of the domestic fool of 
the olden days, there is far more knavery than folly about the creature. 
One of these animals was lately detected in a most Ingenious theft. A number of 
rabbits were kept in a little outhouse, and inhabited a set of hutches fastened to the wall. 
One day it was found that nearly all the store of oats had suddenly vanished from the 
outhouse without any visible reason. Next morning, however, the donkey who lived in 
an adjoining meadow was seen to open the gate which led into his field, and cautiously 
shut it after him. This conduct afforded a clue to the disappearance of the oats, and 
upon a careful search being made, his footmarks were traced along the path to the rabbit- 
house, and even on the ground among the hutches. It was very clear that the ingenious 
animal must have unlatched his own gate, unfastened the loop of the rabbit-house, finished 
all the oats, and have returned as he went, re-fastening all the doors behind him. In 
leaving the rabbit-house he must have backed out, as the place was not wide enough to 
permit him to turn. 
He was very familiar with the children, and would permit three of them to ride on 
his back together. After a while the boys went to school, and some ponies were procured 
for the other members of the family, so that Sancho had a long holiday. When the boys 
returned from school, they mounted Sancho as usual for the purpose of having their ride. 
The cunning animal allowed them to seat themselves, aud then coolly shook them off 
again. This process he repeated until they gave up the hopeless attempt, and Sancho 
gained his purpose. 
That a donkey has more than once succeeded in beating off the attacks of a leopard 
by vigorous and rapid kicks of his hind-feet is well known, and an incident occurred 
some years ago which shows that the animal is as valiant in opposing dogs as in fighting 
leopards. A surly, ill-intentioned man, who possessed an equally surly bull-dog, set 
his animal at an unoffending donkey.. The bull-dog, nothing loth, made at his intended 
victim and sprang at him. The Ass, however, cleverly avoided the dog’s onset, seized 
him in its teeth, carried him to the river Derwent, near which the scene occurred, 
plunged him under water, and there lying down upon him, prevented him from regaining 
the surface, and fairly drowned his opponent. 
Another Ass displayed a singular discrimination of palate, being celebrated for his love 
of good ale. At one road-side inn the landlady had been very kind in supplying the 
donkey with a glass of his loved beverage, and the natural consequence was, that the 
animal could never be induced to pass within a moderate distance of the spot without 
going for his beer. Neither entreaties nor force sufficed to turn his head in another 
direction, and his master was in such cases obliged to make the best of the matter, and 
permit the animal to partake of his desired refreshment. He had a curious knack of 
taking a tumbler of beer between his lips, and drinking the contents without spilling a 
drop of the liquid or breaking the glass. So curious a sight .as a donkey drinking beer 
was certain to attract many observers, who testified their admiration by treating the 
animal to more beer. His head, however, was fortunately a strong one, for only once in 
his life was he ever seen intoxicated, and on that solitary occasion his demeanour was 
wonderfully decorous. 
A petted donkey belonging to one of my friends was permitted to walk at large in 
the garden, on condition that h2 restrained himself from leaving the regular paths. Once 
or twice he had been seduced by the charms of some plant to walk upon the flower-beds, 
an had been accordingly drubbed by the gardener, who detected the robber by the marks 
