Merits of Patient Creatures Have Been Sung by Poets and Depicted by Painters.
The “common or garden” donkey is one of the most laughed-at animals, and few of us pause to think what a figure this stubborn but patient creature has made in literature, art, and history. The very first picture the visitor to the London National gallery sees as he enters the building is a beautifully painted ass upon which the Virgin sits with her Infant Son. It is Holman Hunt’s “Triumph of the Innocents.” Balaam’s ass has passed into a proverb of the foolish instructing the wise! There is, too, the Golden ass of Apuleius, a romance of the Second century, Balzac with his Ass’s Skin,” Sancho Panza with his adored donkey, and Sterne with that dead donkey which he has immortalized. Then who can forget Robert Louis Stevenson’s delightful “Travels With a Donkey,” where the donkey is almost as entertaining as the author? There was, too, Halil Bey’s donkey which was shaved of its ears by a British shot, and there was Matanza’s mule killed in Cuba-but that was only half a donkey! King Midas was said to have ass’s ears, and it was upon an ass that Mohammed went to paradise to learn the will of Allah. It was named Al Borak [the lightning], so it must have been the swiftest ass on record.
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