2. SOS, pe're, rendered likewise "wild ass," is a de- rivative of the same root which in Hebrew has pro- duced paras, horse, and parasim, horsemen, Persians and Parthians. Though evidently a generical term, the Scripture uses it in a specific sense, and seems to intend by it the horse-ass or wild mule, which the Greeks denominated hemionos, and the moderns jig- getal ; though we think there still remains some com- mixture in the descriptions of the species and those of the koulan, or wild ass of Northern Asia. Both are
Wild A
nearly of the same stature, and not unlike in the gen- eral distribution of colors and markings, but the he- mionos is distinguished from the other by its neighing voice and the deficiency of two teeth in the jaws. The species is first noticed by Aristotle, who mentions nine of these animals as beinc: brought to Phryajia by Pharnaces the satrap, of which three were living in the time of his son Pharnabazus. This was while the onager still roamed wild in Cappadocia and Syria,
ASS
477
ASS
and proves that it had until then been considered the same species, or that from its rarity it had escaped discrimination; but no doubt remains that it was the gourkhur, or horse-ass, which is implied by the name hemionos. The allusion of Jeremiah, in speak- ing of the pere (xiv, G), most forcibly depicts the scarcity of food when this species, inured to the des- ert and to want of water, are made the prominent example of suffering. See Mule. They were most likely used in traces to draw chariots. The ani- mals so noticed in Isa. xxi, 7, and by Herodotus, are the same which Pliny, Strabo, and Arnobius make the Caramanians and Scythians employ in the same way. We claim the pere, and not the arod, to be this species, because the hemionos, or at least the gourk- hur, does not bray, as before noticed; and because, notwithstanding its fierceness and velocity, it is ac- tually used at present as a domestic animal at Luck- now, where it was observed by Duvaucel. The hemi- onos is little inferior to the wild horse ; in shape it re- sembles a mule, in gracefulness a horse, and in color it is silvery, with broad spaces of flaxen or bright bay on the thigh, flank, shoulder, neck, and head ; the ears are wide like the zebra's, and the neck is clothed with a vertical dark mane prolonged in a stripe to the tuft of the tail. The company of this animal is liked by horses, and, when domesticated, it is gentle. It is now found wild from the deserts of the Oxus and Jaxartes to China and Central India. In Cutch it is never known to drink, and in whole districts which it fre- quents water is not to be found; and though the na- tives talk of the fine flavor of the flesh, and the gour in Persia is the food of heroes, to a European its smell is abominable. — Kitto, s. v. See Wild Ass.
Ass's Head. — 1. By the law of Moses the ass was declared unclean, and therefore was not used as food, excepting, as it would appear, in cases of extreme famine. This inference, however, is drawn from a case where the term "ass's head" may be explained to mean not literally the head of an ass, but a certain measure or weight so called, as in 1 Sam. xvi, 20, where it is said that Jesse sent to Saul "an ass of bread ;" for, in our version, "laden with" is an addition to the text. Although, therefore, the famine in Samaria may possi- bly have compelled the people to eat asses, and a head may have been very dear, still the expression may de- note the measure or weight which bore the same name. The prohibition, however, had more probably an eco- nomical than a religious purpose ; hunting was thus discouraged, and no horses being used, it was of im- portance to augment the number and improve the qualities of the ass. This example of the use of asses' flesh (an "ass's head") in extreme famine (sometimes the flesh was regarded as a delicacy, Apul. Metam. vii, p. 158, Bip. ed. ; comp. Galen, Facult. alim. i, 2, p. 486, ed. Kuhn ; Plin. viii, 68) occurs in 2 Kings vi, 25 (comp. Plutarch, Vit. Artax. 24; Barhebr. Chron. p. 149, 488), although it was unclean (Philo, Opp. ii, 400; comp. Exod. xiii, 13; xxxiv, 20), and the ass could not be offered in sacrifice (Porphyr. Austin, ii, 25 ; but it was otherwise among the Persians, Strabo, xv, 727 ; even in magic its flesh was used, Ammian. Marc, xxx, 5, p. 228, Pip. ed.). See Food.
2. As this animal was most serviceable to man, its name was held in respect rather than contempt. The slandpr, therefore, current among the Romans, and di- rected against the Jews, that they adored the head of an ass in secret, may not have originated in direct mal- ice or misinterpretation, but have arisen out of some Gnostic fancies, in which the Alexandrian Jews, who had nearly forsaken the Scriptures in search of the mag- ical delusions of the Cabala, and new semi-Christians in that city so deeply indulged during the first centu- ries of our era. Hence the Ophite sect figured in the circles of Behemoth, the last genius or iEon (?), under the name of Onoel, shaped like an ass ; and there ex- ists an engraved abraxas, or talisman, of Gentile or