BALAAM'S ASS 93 



years, the leader of souls through the nether darkness of 

 death, the " way of an ass " is now the way of destruction. 



And still more strange, the animal which once bore the 

 triumphant Christ, which still, according to the legend, 

 bears its own glad triumph in the task upon its back, is 

 now the vehicle of contempt reserved for the meanest 

 criminals who, driven from out their fellows ignomini- 

 ously, ride on it, face tailwards, exposed to the taunts 

 of all. 



It is a difficult metamorphosis to follow, though there 

 is no lack of evidence to show this crossing of the ass over 

 the horizons of history, or to prove that it rose in glory if 

 it has set in dishonour. Naturally, also, this really extra- 

 ordinary narration of the estimates in which it has been 

 held by humanity suggests that its influence has also been 

 manifold. 



In the early, almost unrecorded, days when it was 

 among the stars it no doubt gained honour by being 

 associated with the moon and with water. In the Nile 

 basin, certainly, any connection with the yearly inundation 

 was counted sufficient testimonial to divine character. 



Yet it was the Egyptian who, in later years, cast the 

 first stone at the donkey by using it as a synonym for a 

 fool. Possibly, however, both the divinity and the 

 stupidity arose from the fact that, even to this day, an ass 

 has the strongest possible objection to crossing water ; for 

 there is nothing more common in tracing out origins than 

 to find one and the same thing counted first to honour and 

 then to dishonour. 



But in truth one cannot avoid a smile, even while one 

 pities the patient, ill-used, ridiculous donkey, whose very 



