94 A BOOK OF MORTALS 



virtues make common cause against him. " Why does a 

 donkey eat thistles ? " asks the world, and replies with a 

 snigger " Because he is a donkey," not " Because he is the 

 least dainty, most easily contented of beasts." 



And yet the whole past history of the Ass is so 

 paradoxical that at times one is tempted to wonder if this 

 fellow mortal of ours is not indulging in a private joke at 

 our expense. 



What subliminal self — the real self which does not 

 cross the threshold of our consciousness — has this beast 

 who is unworthy to be yoked with the ox, yet worthy to 

 stand beside it in the stable at Bethlehem .? 



Why should a baby donkey — quaintest, dearest, most 

 enchantingly grotesque of all young unblemished things, 

 have its neck broken, and a grown-up one be counted as an 

 honourable " white ass " fit for any prophet to ride ? 



Why should the descendants of Mahomet's ass on which 

 he travelled to heaven and back still be kept sleek and 

 honoured at Mecca, while those of the colt and the foal of 

 the ass who had higher honour be remembered only in such 

 travesties as the festival of the Ass which until lately 

 lingered in Italy ? Festivalism divided between unseemly 

 ceremonies of beating a poor donkey outside the church, 

 and saying his Litany within it punctuated by "heehaws" 

 instead of "Aniens".'' 



Why should one King Midas be afraid lest his long 

 ears should be known, and another King Midas take pride in 

 being called long-eared, because he kept himself well- 

 informed on what was going on around him ? 



Finally why should we hold the Ass to be a stupid 

 animal, when on the only occasion in which he is known 



