IN the time of the patriarchs, the breed of this animal, which we regard with so much undeserved contempt, constituted no inconsiderable portion of wealth among Oriental shepherds.
The color of the ass is generally a reddish brown, but we learn from the song of Deborah that some asses were white, and those were reserved for persons of high rank.
During the seven years of famine in Egypt, Joseph gave the people corn in exchange for their asses and other cattle, to keep them alive.
Jacob’s sons employed the ass to carry burdens of every kind, and it seems to have been the only animal they took with them in their many journeys to Egypt to purchase corn for their households. And when Joseph sent a present of the good things of Egypt to his aged parent (although that country was rich in horses), he chose the ass to carry them.
Among the Jews, the ass was considered as an unclean animal, because it neither divides the hoof not chews the cud. It could be neither used as food not offered in sacrifice, The firstling of an ass, like camels, horses, and other unclean animals, was to be redeemed with the sacrifice of a lamb, or deprived of its life. (Ex. 13:1313And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. (Exodus 13:13)). In cases of extreme want, this law was, however, disregarded, for when the Syrian armies besieged Samaria, the people were so reduced that an ass’s head, though an unpalatable sort of food, was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, (2 Kings 6:2525And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. (2 Kings 6:25)). And the Jews were also commanded, under pain of God’s anger, to bring bad the ass of their greatest enemy if they found it straying. (Ex. 23:44If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. (Exodus 23:4)).
To ride upon an ass or ass’s colt in the days of the Judges, seems to have been a mark of distinction, for we read of the greatness and richness of Jair, the Gileadite, one of these Judges: “He had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass-colts, and they had thirty cities which were called Havoth-jair.” (Judg. 10:44And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. (Judges 10:4)). Abdon the Pirathonite, another of these Judges, had fort] sons and thirty nephews that rode on threescore and ten ass-colts.
So highly were these animals valued in the East, that they were formed into separate droves, and committed to the care of princes or other persons of distinction. In Gen. 36:2424And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. (Genesis 36:24), we read that Anah, a Horite prince, did not think it below his dignity to feed the asses of Zibeon his father, and after David’s accession to the throne, he appointed Jehdeiah the Meronothite, a prince in Israel, to superintend this part of his property. (1 Chron. 27:3030Over the camels also was Obil the Ishmaelite: and over the asses was Jehdeiah the Meronothite: (1 Chronicles 27:30)). The great strength of this animal was also strikingly displayed in the reign of David. When that monarch was driven from Jerusalem by the rebellion of his son Absalom, Ziba, the treacherous servant of Mephibosheth, brought him a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loafs of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine (2 Sam. 16:11And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. (2 Samuel 16:1)); and yet the load, so large in proportion to their size, does not seem to have fatigued them, for immediately after their arrival, they were used to carry the king’s household.
The female ass seems to have been more valued than the male in the East, for a great portion of their wealth consisted of female asses, and female asses only are mentioned in the possessions of Job (1:3). The ass which Balaam rode is distinguished as a female.
The ass appears to have been occasionally yoked to the chariot, for the prophet Isaiah, foretelling the fall of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, describes the watchmen as seeing a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels. The neglect which follows this animal through life does not forsake him even in death. His carcass is cast into the field or thrown into the nearest ditch, where it is left to moulder into dust. The burial of an ass was reckoned the greatest disgrace to which the body of a criminal could be doomed; to this end the prophet Jeremiah, by the command of God, condemned Jehoiakim, king of Judah.
We read in the prophet Isaiah (30:24), “The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.” In these words the prophet foretells a season of great plenty, in which the cattle shall be fed with corn of better quality than usual, separated from the chaff; which would render it more grateful to their taste.
As the number of horses increased in Judea, and the people of rank became fonder of pomp and show, the movements of the more stately animal were preferred to the less dignified ones of the ass, and it soon; became a mark of great poverty to appear in public on that animal. This change in the customs of the Jews enables us clearly to understand how the public entry of our Lord into Jerusalem could have been prophesied by the prophet Zechariah as an instance of His humility and meekness. “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.” And here He was to resemble those who had really been deliverers of their country, who, though mounted on asses, and colts the foals of asses, were able to put to flight the hundreds and thousands of chariots and horses that came against them.
The second prize, “Kane’s Arctic Voyages,” has been gained by P. K. S.