ADVENTURES AND INCIDENTS. 409 



with closed eyes and heels upward, as though dead. No 

 efforts or commands would make him stir, until his master 

 proclaimed that the soldan had issued an edict that the 

 best and comeliest donkeys were to be invited to the feast 

 to-morrow, when he would start up and prance for joy. 

 When his master informed him that he had been selected 

 to carry an ugly and deformed woman through the city, he 

 lowered his ears and limped as though he could scarcely 

 stand. 



8. Sagacity of a Sheep.— A gentleman, while pass- 

 ing through a lonely district in the highlands of Scotland, 

 observed a sheep hurrying toward the road before him, and 

 bleating most piteously. On approaching nearer, it re- 

 doubled its cries, and seemed to implore assistance. The 

 gentleman alighted, and followed the sheep to a field at no 

 great distance, where he found a lamb comjdetely wedged 

 in between two stones, and feebly struggling with its feet 

 uppermost. He set the lamb at liberty, and the grateful 

 mother gave her thanks in a series of joyful bleats, very 

 different in tone from those she used to first attract his at- 

 tention. 



9. Ooueage of the Hog. — In the early settlement of 

 this country hogs were allowed to run in the woods, where 

 they became exceedingly wild. A gentleman traveling 

 through the forest in a hilly region saw a herd of swine 

 acting in a very curious manner. They had formed into a 

 kind of sharp-pointed triangle, the pigs in the center, and 

 the heads of the old hogs all pointing outward. At the 

 apex of the triangle was an old boar, who seemed to be in 

 supreme command. He now saw the cause of the commo- 

 tion. A half-famished wolf was endeavoring to seize one 

 of the lesser hogs, but the old boar constantly fronted him, 

 and the whole triangle shifted its position, but retained its 



