Assizes

“ For a woman is leading on a mailed warrior, forged out of brass, conducting him decorously; and so she professes to be Justice, as the inscription tells: I will bring back this man, and he shall have the city of his fathers, and a dwelling in the palace. Such are their devices; and do thou thyself now determine whom it is that thou thinkest proper to send: since never at any time shalt thou censure me for my tidings; but do thou thyself determine the management of the vessel of the state.
Et. O heaven-frenzied, and great abomination of the gods! ”

“ That which comes out of the cloud, and of the gloom, also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the sun, or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. The Açvinâu are often found in connection with the worthless horse, which afterwards becomes handsome by means of the ambrosia itself that the horse produces; the gandharvâs, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I may use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near relation with the ass, their alter ego, who enjoys the blessing of eternal youth. ”

“ So as they walked along, all at once the lad wished that he might become the handsomest man in all the world, and so he was in a trice. When the princess saw how handsome he had grown in no time, she gave the queen a nudge, and the queen passed it on to the king, and when they had all stared their full, they saw still more plainly the lad was more than he seemed to be when he first came in all tattered and torn. ”

“ In bonds of brass not easy to be loosed,
Nailing thee to this crag where no wight dwells,
Nor sound of human voice nor shape of man
Shall visit thee; but the sun-blaze shall roast
Thy flesh; thy hue, flower-fair, shall suffer change ”

“ Next morning the Giant got up cruelly early, and strode off to the wood; but he was hardly out of the house before Boots and the Princess set to work to look under the door-sill for his heart; but the more they dug, and the more they hunted, the more they couldn’t find it. ”

“ If we read it as we would any similar piece, any other fable in which men and beasts speak to each other, we should say that there were some elements of the ludicrous [Pg 64] in the picture of the prophet rebuked by his ass. “And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field. And Balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way.” Just what any one would do to a “shying” animal, upon impulse. ”

“ That's why I creak and crackle, and croak and crack."
"Well," said the Door, "if I can do naught else, I can rattle and bang, and whistle and slam;" and with that it began to open and shut, and bang and slam, it deaved one to hear, and all one's teeth chattered. ”

“ The ass, however, was by no means soothed by the meteor-like disappearance of the beasts of prey, and the gruesome dronings that, in spite of hard whacks, it indulged in for many minutes, betrayed the depth of its emotions and the cavernous nature of its interior organization. The ass, like the savage, has no perception of the picturesque. ”

“ He was a schoolmaster, and a wonderful figure of fun besides; he was lopsided, for he had one leg shorter than the other, and one moment he was as little as a boy, and in another, when he stood on his long leg, he was as tall and long as a Troll. ”

“ An ass once had the golden image of the Goddess Isis set on his back, and he was led through the streets of a city in Egypt. Then the Egyptians fell down on their faces and worshipped, and raised their hands in supplication. The ass was puffed up with pride, and began to prick up his ears and prance. Then the driver brought down his stick upon his back, and said, "You ass! the honour is given not to you, but to what you bear." There is many a man who is no less elated by his position, or by some good fortune that falls to him, than this ass. ”

“ I espied a company of men surrounding a ring, made with stakes and ropes, in which two wretched creatures were stripping off their garments, with the intention to do battle upon one another with their fists. These were gentlemen of the fancy, as it is called; though imagination can paint nothing of a more grossly animal and brutish character, afar from all that is fanciful, than that very class that calls itself of the fancy. ”

“ THE Members of the Body once rebelled against the Belly. “You,” they said to the Belly, “live in luxury and sloth, and never do a stroke of work; while we not only have to do all the hard work there is to be done, but are actually your slaves and have to minister to all your wants. ”

“ In this situation you might behold an elegant woman, with a neat yellow slipper, delicate ankle, and white silk stockings, stepping up to her garter in the mire, with as little dissatisfaction as she would into her coach—there, another, making the first faux pas, perhaps, she ever did, and seated, reluctantly, on the moistened clay. ”

“ Then all the villagers came out with weapons in their hands; and blowing chanks, and beating drums, they went near the field and shouted. Terrified with the fear of death, the ass uttered a cry—the bray of an ass! ”

“ Age had flecked with gray the beard that spread over his big chest to his belt stiffened with studs of iron, but the vigour of youth was in his glance and in his voice, and in the tread of his foot, and in his fist so lightly handling his burly spear. ”

“ You go on the other side of the fir, and I will stand here. If we are not good enough to make our hands meet, it will be big enough; but mind you stretch out well. Stretch out well, do you hear?' said the lad, as he took out his thongs. As for the man, he did all the lad told him. ”

“ In the arrow-play our horsemen would have the worst of it, for the armor of the asshuri is the better, and when it came to sword-strokes their close-marshaled ranks of trained swordsmen would cleave through our loose lines and scatter our men like chaff before the wind. ”

“ When they saw the use to which he was putting their gift, they cried, “Alas! alas! We are undone, but we are ourselves to blame. The little we gave has cost us all: had we not sacrificed the rights of the ash, we might ourselves have stood for ages.” ”

“ The fortunate youth's first act [Pg 382] is to invent a cap of the shape of the ears of an ass, in order that the king may be able to conceal the deformity; and when the people see the king with a cap of this shape, it pleases them so much that they all adopt it ”

“ Most of us know some clumsy fellow who kicks his ancles, and who so shambles in his gait as to have all the mud or dust that he can kick up hanging about his trowsers. Another man comes out of the very same path without a speck above his shoe-soles. These savings in dress would cover much instruction in the use of the limbs, and in the art of defence. ”

“ Verse 14
Issachar is a strong ass - חמר גרם chamor garem is properly a strong-limbed ass; couching between two burdens - bearing patiently, as most understand it, the fatigues of agriculture, and submitting to exorbitant taxes rather that exert themselves to drive out the old inhabitants.
The two burdens literally mean the two sacks or panniers, one on each side of the animal's body; and couching down between these refers to the well-known propensity of the ass, whenever wearied or overloaded, to lie down even with its burden on its back. ”

“ A HIND said to her Fawn, who was now well grown and strong, “My son, Nature has given you a powerful body and a stout pair of horns, and I can’t think why you are such a coward as to run away from the hounds.” ”

“ The owner maintained that he had let the Ass only, and not his Shadow. The traveler asserted that he had, with the hire of the Ass, hired his Shadow also. The quarrel proceeded from words to blows, and while the men fought the Ass galloped off.
In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.
The Horse and the Loaded Ass.
An idle Horse, and an Ass laboring under a heavy burden, were traveling the road together. The Ass, ready to faint under his heavy load, entreated the Horse to assist him, and lighten his burden, by taking some of it upon his back. ”

“ So one day the king came and asked Boots if it were true that he was man enough to keep the fish in the mill-dam, so that the troll could not harm them, 'for that's what they tell me you have said,' spoke the king. ”

“ They had not gone far before they saw the owner of the axe pursuing them, when he who had picked up the axe, said, "We are undone." "Nay," replied the other, "keep to your first mode of speech, my friend; what you thought right then, think right now. Say 'I,' not 'We' are undone."
He who shares the danger ought to share the prize. ”

“ Now, two of you may go unto the village of Bethphage, and you will find an ass tied to a tree, and you will see a little colt near by.
6. Untie the ass and bring her here to me. If any one inquires why you take the ass, just say, The master has a need of her; and then the owner will come on with you.
7. And the disciples went as Jesus bade them go; they found the ass and colt a-near an open door; and when they would untie the ass the owner said Why would you take the ass away? ”

“ Sent on you from afar: some god will guard!
I too, for shrewd espial of their camp,
Have sent forth scouts, and confidence is mine
They will not fail nor tremble at their task,
And, with their news, I fear no foeman’s guile. ”

“ Then he waved his sword, and whomsoever he struck fell to the ground, and he clapped them all in prison. But his wife caressed and wheedled him again, and said, “Nay, but tell me, wherein doth thy strength lie?”––“My strength, darling,” said he, “lies in my boots.” Then she drew off his boots while he slept, and gave them to his enemies. ”

“ So they sent a deputation to him to protest against his action. He, however, advised them not to raise any objections. “What’s in a tuft of hair?” said he. “Let them have it if they want it. They can never be a match for you in strength.” ”

“ The ass, or young man—I cannot tell by which name I should term him—being many times repelled, and understanding their words that called him ass, considering that he could speak never a word and yet could understand everybody, he thought that he was bewitched by the woman at whose house he was. And therefore, when by no means he could get into the boat, but was driven to tarry and see her departure, being also beaten from place to place as an ass, he remembered the witch's [137] words, and the words of his own fellows that called him ass, and returned to the witch's house ”

“ Oh, don’t you know those things as big as a house, that some women lug about their ball-dresses in—all standing, so to speak? It can’t be bigger than that. And as to the weight—oh, we’ll stuff the insurgents about Byzantine robes, stiff with gold and jewels, and all that sort of thing, you know. ”

“ AN ascetic, with shaved head or braided hair and living in the cave of a mountain, may pretend to be four hundred years old, and, followed by a number of disciples with braided hair, halt in the vicinity of the capital city of the enemy. The disciples of the ascetic may make presentations of roots and fruits to the king and his ministers and invite them to pay a visit to the venerable ascetic. ”

“ None of these buff-skinned savages were clothed, but some wore about their hips rude girdles of adder-skin or crackling undressed hide, from which depended little bags, not made, but torn from the paws of beasts, and carrying the rudely-dressed flints that were men's chief weapons and tools. ”

“ What do you say to accompanying me?’ The giant looked contemptuously at the tailor, and said: ‘What a poor wretched little creature you are!’ ‘That’s a good joke,’ answered the little tailor, and unbuttoning his coat he showed the giant the girdle. ‘There now, you can read what sort of a fellow I am.’ The giant read: ‘Seven at a blow;’ and thinking they were human beings the tailor had slain, he conceived a certain respect for the little man. ”

“ Adorned on his breast and on his forehead by strings of teeth, the trophies of war or of the chase, his large keen eyes gleaming from beneath his heavy brow, his white and pointed teeth shining from between his parted lips, he alternately advances and retires before an imaginary foe, with a wild yet dramatic grace, which adds life and reality to the tale he is telling. ”

“ From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. ”

“ No one could fathom the significance of a certain tall figure, dressed in rags, who stopped short in her tracks at frequent intervals, and, producing a needle and thread, sewed industriously at her tattered garments. ”

“ Then there was great joy and mirth all over the realm, and the old king was the gladdest of all of them, because he had got his darling back again. But when what Ritter Red and the eldest princess had done to Boots came out, the king asked to have them both rolled down a hill, each in a cask full of spikes and nails; but Boots and the youngest princess begged hard for them, and so they got off with life. ”

“ We may believe there are no Battling Burrows, striking the helpless with brutal whip—but do we not ourselves use the whip of unkind words and deeds? So, perhaps, Battling may even carry a message of warning. ”

“ He began to play on it, and the watchmen fell a-dancing, till they lay down and gasped for breath.
So they sent soldiers and the guard on their way; but it was no better with them than with the watchmen. ”

“ These knaves understand no reason, whether balls fly, or swords glitter, it is to them mere pastime, and the smallest boys, who are scarcely weaned from their mother’s breast, are just as much infatuated with this devilry as any of the oldest grey beards. ”