60 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



in the space of a single day, three great asses of bread,' which 

 Cassaubon understands of the lading of ihres asses ; whereas it 

 means the contents of three vases of the kind called an ass.* We 

 may also doubt, whether Abigail (1 Sam. xxv. 18.) really loaded 

 asses quadrupeds with her presents to David ; for the original 

 literally is, she took two hundred of bread, &c. and placed them 

 on THE asses ; which suggests something distinct from asses, ani- 

 imals ; for then it would be, as it is in our version, ' she placed them 

 on asses.' Besides, there is a passage (Ex. viii. 14,) where our 

 translators themselves have rendered heaps, what in the original is 

 asses asses ; * They gathered the frogs together, asses asses ;' t. e. 

 many of that quantity called an ass, ; and so Samson says of his 

 defeated enemies, c a heap, heaps ; ass asses.' Now, if we take our 

 English word pile, to signify this quantity, without attempting to 

 determine accurately, it will lead us to the idea, that Jesse sent to 

 Saul a pile of bread ; that a person ate three piles of bread in one 

 day; that Abigail placed her bread, wine, corn, raisins, and figs in 

 piles ; that the Egyptians gathered the frogs in piles ; that Samson's 

 enemies laid in piles. In these renderings there is nothing strained 

 or unnatural. Let this vindicate those Jews, then, who translate 

 the passage which has given occasion to these observations, not 

 ' the head of an ass,' but 'the head of a measure ;' for the letters are 

 precisely the same in the original. ' But what must we do with 

 the head ?' inquires Mr. Taylor, to which he ingeniously adds, that 

 the word rash, here rendered head, signifies the total, entirety ; the 

 whole, as Psalms, cxxxix. 17 ; ' How precious also are thy thoughts 

 to me, O God! How great is the head [sum] of them' the total- 

 the entirety. Exod. xxx. 12 ; VV hen thou takest the head [sum to- 

 tal whole enumeration] of the children of Israel,' &c. These 

 ideas combined will render the passage to this effect : 'The famine 

 was so severe, that the whole of a pile? \. e. of bread, or a complete 

 pile of bread, ' sold for eighty pieces of silver.' It must not be con- 

 cealed, however, that there is no mention of bread in the original* 

 and therefore the quantity which the word pile is here used to sig- 

 nify, is so far indeterminate 



In one part of the ritual, the Hebrews were forbidden to plough 

 with an ox and an ass together. See Dent. xxii. 10. It is genei- 

 ally thought, that mixtures of different sorts in seeds, breed, &c. 

 were made for superstitious purposes by the heathen, and therefore 

 prohibited by Moses. It is more likely, however, that there was a 

 physical reason for this law. Two beasts of a different species can- 

 not associate comfortably together ; and on this ground, never pull 

 pleasantly either in cart or plough : and every farmer knows, that 

 it is of considerable consequence to the comfort of the cattle, to put 

 those together that have an affection for each other. This may be 



* M. Reland lias shown, by a great number of authorities, that the heathen called a 

 sort of bottle with two handles, asses ; probably because they had two long handles, hav- 

 ing some conformity to the ears of an ass. He judges this to be the reason why it was 

 aid by the ancients, that Silenus, tho servant of Bacchus, was carried upon an ass. 



