ASS. | NATURAL HISTORY. 19 
and is therefore kindly, heavy and slow, and unlusty, dull 
and witless and forgetful. Natheless he beareth burdens, 
and may away with travail and thraldom, and useth vile 
meat and little, and gathereth his meat among briars and 
thorns and thistles. Small birds that nesteth them in bushes, 
thorns and briars hate the Ass. And therefore small 
sparrows fighteth with the Ass, for the Ass eateth the thorns, 
in the which the sparrows make their nests. And also the 
Ass rubbeth and froteth his flesh against the thorns, and so 
the birds or the eggs of the sparrows falleth out of the 
nest down to the ground. And when that the Ass reareth 
and heaveth up her head, then by a strong blast the thorns 
moveth and shaketh, and of the great noise the birds be 
afeared full sore, and falleth out of the nest. And there- 
fore the mothers suffereth them to leap on the face of the 
Ass, and bite and smite and rese to his eyes with their 
bills. And if the Ass have a wound or a scab in the ridge 
or in. the side of pricking of thorns or in any other wise, 
the sparrows leapeth on the Ass, and pecketh with their 
