called by the Romans, as well as the desolateness of the place of its habitation, is used by the prophet Isaiah to denote utter annihilation: "Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city because the palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever; a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks" (Isa. xxxii. 13, 14). The rich and populous country would be ruined and made desolate. The timid ass, whose "dwelling" is "the wilderness," would stray through their waste and uncultivated fields, and repose himself in their ruinous and deserted houses, undismayed by the presence of man.

In a state of domestication the ass loses all its fierceness and much of its spirit and sprightliness. Even in the more congenial climate of Spain, the islands of the Mediterranean, and indeed in all the south of Europe, it seems to have degenerated from its original type. Condemned to submit its shoulders to the yoke, it loses the free bearing and daring spirit of the inhabitant of the desert, and assumes, even in the most favourable circum

stances, the downcast look, and dogged indifference which characterise the humble drudge of our own country.

The ass seems to have been brought under subjection by man at an early period, much of the wealth of patriarchal times consisting of them. They are reckoned, along with the sheep and the oxen, and man servants and maid servants, in which the riches of Abram and other patriarchs consisted. So highly indeed were they then valued, that they were frequently put under the charge of princes and persons of distinction. Anah, a Horite prince, fed the asses of his father Zibeon (Gen. xxxvi. 24); and when Samuel received command to anoint Saul, the son of Kish, king of Israel, he was engaged in searching after his father's asses. So numerous were they in the East, that when the people of Israel subdued the Midianites, they carried away "three score and one thousand asses." They were then indeed so highly esteemed, as to be deemed gifts worthy of princes. Thus we find Jacob presenting Esau with twenty (Gen. xxxii. 15). If such a number was deemed an acceptable gift, what shall

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we say of the wealth of Job, who possessed a thousand!

In the time of the Judges it is mentioned as a mark of distinction to ride upon an ass: thus Jair, the Gideonite, one of these judges, "had thirty sons that rode upon thirty ass colts;" and another, Abdon, the Pyrathonite, "had forty sons and thirty nephews that rode on three score and ten ass colts." Ahitophel, the prime minister of David, and the greatest statesman of his day, rode on an ass; and so late as the days of Jehoram, the son of Ahab, we find its services still retained by the wealthy among the Israelites. The Shunam-ite, a person of high rank, mounted upon an ass, rode in haste to Carmel to announce to the prophet the death of her son, and to solicit his assistTo maintain an animal for the purpose of riding, probably was considered among the ancient Hebrews as great a mark of distinction as that of keeping a carriage in our own day.

ance.

It is necessary to note the very remarkable change which seems to have taken place in the estimation in which the Israelites held this animal, in order to appreciate the meekness and humility

In the

of our Saviour's entry into Jerusalem. time of Solomon we find that he collected a numerous stud of the finest horses that Egypt could furnish; and so general had this trade become, that, after the return from the Babylonish captivity, the rich and noble for the most part rode on horses and mules, resigning the ass to the lower orders of society. Keeping this fact in mind, we are enabled to appreciate the prophecy of Zechariah, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass" (Zech. ix. 9).

To plough with the ox and ass in one yoke, was prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut. xxii. 10). This prohibition is thought, by some commentators, to have respect to an idolatrous custom among the Gentile nations, who were taught to believe that their fields would be thus rendered more fruitful. Others think it symbolical; importing, that the Hebrews must not form improper alliances in civil and religious life.

The adventure of the prophet Balaam and his ass, when with covetous alacrity he accompanied the servants of Balak to curse the Israelites, (Numb. xxii. 23), is too remarkable to be overlooked, and is yet too familiar to call for more than passing allusion. "The speaking ass," says Bishop Newton, in his Dissertations on the Prophecies, "from that time to this, has been the slandering jest of every infidel brother. Some have conceived that it was transacted in a vision; but it appears rather more probable, from the whole tenor of the narration, that this was no visionary but a real transaction. The words of St. Peter show that it is to be understood as he himself understood it, literally (2 Pet. ii. 14-16). The ass was enabled to utter such and such sounds, probably as parrots do, without literally understanding them and say what you will of the constitution of the ass's mouth, of the formation of the tongue and jaws being unfit for speaking, yet an adequate cause is assigned for this wonderful effect; for it is said expressly, The Lord opened the mouth of the ass:' and no one who believes in a God can doubt of his power of doing this, and