THE MULE. 63 



ass, although destitute of reason, and even duller than many other 

 animals ; although commonly hard wrought and unkindly treated, 

 discovers an attachment to his master, which the people of Israel 

 did'not feel for the living God, who daily loaded them with his 

 benefits. This trait in his character gives uncommon poignancy to 

 the prophet's reproof: * The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his 

 master's crib,' he is not insensible to the kindness of his benefac- 

 tors ; * but Israel doth not know' the God of his salvation ; ' my 

 people doth not consider ' from whose hand they receive all their 

 blessings, nor what return they owe to him for his unmerited kind- 





THE MULE . 



THIS is an animal out of the ordinary course of nature, being 

 Tared from an union of the horse and the ass. In the preceding ar- 

 ticle, we have stated it to have been strictly forbidden in the Mosaic 

 code, to unite either seeds or animals of divers natures, and thus de- 

 stroy the marked distinction which God has formed between the 

 several parts of his creation. Hence it does not appear that these 

 animals were ever bred by the Hebrews, although they were cer- 

 tainly much used among them during the latter part of the common- 

 wealth. The earliest mention which we find of the mule, in scrip- 

 ture, is in the reign of David, 1 (2 Sam. xiii. 29) , unless, as some 

 commentators have thought, they are spoken of in Gen. xxxvi. 24, 

 a passage which has given rise to much critical conjecture. Enu- 

 merating the children of Zibeon, the Horite, the sacred writer says 

 of one of them : 'This was that Anah that found the mules in the 

 wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.' 



The mule has been much employed for domestic purposes, both 

 in ancient and modern times. In the reign of David they formed 

 part of the state equipage, (1 Kings i. 33; 2 Sam. xiii. 29, &c.); 

 they were presented among other costly gifts to Solomon, (1 Kings 

 x. 25) ; and when the utmost expedition was required, they were 

 employed by Mordecai and Esther to convey their despatches 

 throughout the Persian empire, Esth. viii. 10. The Roman ladies 

 had equipages drawn by mules, as appears from the medals of Julia 

 and Agrippina ; and at the present day, the coaches of the nobility 

 in Spain are usually drawn by them. 



For travelling over wild and mountainous tracts of country, the 

 mule is said to be preferable to the horse, being much more sure- 

 footed. Their manner of going down the Alps, Andes, &c. is very 

 extraordinary. In these passages, on one side are steep eminences, 

 and on the other, frightful abysess ; and as they generally follow 

 the direction of the mountain, the road, instead of lying in a level, 



