may the text, in which a preference, as might be expected, is given to the ox: "The oxen likewise and the young asses, that ear (or till) the ground, shall eat clean provender." The same inference be drawn from the proverb of Solomon already quoted, in which he takes no notice of the ass, although it is more than probable, he had been yoked in the plough long before his reign. The superior importance of the ox, even in the light and sandy fields of Syria, is clearly signified in these words of Amos : "Shall horses run upon the rock; will one plough there with oxen." 99 е In ancient Greece, the ox was engaged in the same labours, for Homer compares the two sons of Ajax to two black oxen, that with equal spirit, drag the compact plough in the fallow, while a profuse sweat issues from the bottom of their horns. Αλλ ὡς εν νείω βος οινοπε πηκτον αροτρον Ισον θυμον εχοντε τιταίνετον. Il. lib. xiii, 1. 703. The Greek writers are eager to secure the honour of tam ing the ox, and yoking him in the plough, to their own nation; but they ascribe the work to so many gods and goddesses, heroes and great men, that it is evident, the benefactor must be sought for among a different people, and in a remoter age. The laws of Moses, which prohibited his people to join in the same yoke the ox and the ass, and the notice which the afflicted patriarch Job, who flourished long before his time, gives us of the " oxen ploughing," clearly prove, that the person who invented the plough and instructed the ox, existed long before the founders of the Grecian states. We may, with the page of inspiration for our guide, trace the invention to the first e Hos. vi, 22. f Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 32, p. 309. descendants of our common father, one of whom was a shepherd, and the other a cultivator of the soil. Nor is the believer in Revelation permitted to assign the honour chiefly to them; he is directed to ascribe it to the Spirit of the only wise God; "Give ye ear and hear my voice; hearken and hear my speech. Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." By direct revelation from Heaven, or the secret suggestion of his Spirit to the mind of Adam, or his son Cain, they were taught to construct the plough, and bend the pliant neck of the ox to the yoke. The importance of the lesson, confirmed by their own daily experience, they failed not to impress upon the minds of their offspring; and thus, one generation transmitted to another, the valuable favour. The ox was also compelled to submit, when the seed time was over, to the more severe labour of dragging the cart or the waggon. In the book of Numbers, the princes of Israel brought their offering before the Lord, six covered waggons and twelve oxen; that is, six waggons each drawn by two oxen; and in the same chapter, Moses 66 gave two waggons and four oxen unto the sons of Ger shon, according to their service; and four waggons and eight oxen unto the sons of Merari, according to their service;" that is, every waggon drawn by two oxen. The number of oxen commonly yoked in one cart, seems to have been two; for the priests and diviners, whom the lords Is. xxviii, 23, 24, 25. h Numb. vii, 3, 7, 8. h of the Philistines consulted about the captive ark of Jehovah, advised them to make a new cart, and yoke in it two milch kine, for the purpose of carrying back the dread symbol of divine majesty to the place appointed for its reception. The new cart, in which the king of Israel and his people brought it up from the house of Aminidab, seems also to have been drawn by two oxen, although the number is not so clearly stated.j It appears from Homer, that oxen and mules were the most common draught cattle in ancient Greece and the Lesser Asia; for the wood which formed the funeral pile of Hector, was conveyed in waggons drawn by oxen and mules: οι δύπ αμαξησιν βοας ημίονους τε Σευγνυσαν. Il. lib. xxiv, 1. 782. The Roman poets speak of the practice in a manner which shews that it was common over all Italy. Thus Ovid: "Ipsa sedens plaustro porta est invecta Capena According to Tibullus, those that first "Illi etiam tauros primi docuisse feruntur yoked the ox in Lib, ii, eleg. 1. From the oriental regions, the custom quickly found its way into the remotest countries of the north. The Scythians, from time immemoral, have wandered over their unmeasured steppes in waggons drawn by oxen, and the ancient Sarmatians imitated their example: "Ducunt Sarmatici barbara plaustra boves." k This strong and docile animal, was also taught to submit his shoulder to the heavy burden; for, at the acces i 1 Sam. vi, 7. j 2 Sam. vi, 3, 6. k Ovid. Trist. lib. iii, el. 10. sion of David to the throne of Israel, the people brought "bread on asses and on camels, and on mules and on oxen." He is less fitted, indeed, by the rotundity of his form, for this species of labour, than for those just mentioned, a circumstance stated by Cicero with his usual felicity: Quid de bobus loquar, quorum ipsa terga declarant non esse se ad onus accipiendum figurata. But although the very back of the ox, according to this elegant writer, declares that it has not been formed to receive a load, yet the concurring testimony of past ages, assures us that it is not altogether unfit for that purpose. Ælian observes, that the bull submits to the bier, and carries a boy or a girl on his neck, and a woman on his back. The Roman authors mounted Bacchus on a bull, and made Europa travel in the same manner : "Vexerat Europen fraterna per equora taurus: At nunc Aleidem taurus in astra tulit." m These quotations prove, that it was by no means uncommon to use the ox for burdens of every kind, and even for the saddle; a custom which Mr Bruce avers, is still practised among some African tribes. In Guzerat the oxen are perfectly white, with black horns, a skin delicately soft, and eyes rivalling those of the antelope in brilliant lustre. Those reared in the northern part of the province are noble animals, superior in size, strength and docility; some of them travel with a hackery, a vehicle for the conveyance of women and children, from thirty to forty miles a day; and are yoked to the carriages of wealthy Hindoos in distant parts of India. In sweetness * 1 Chron. xii, 40. 'De Nat. Animal. lib. vii, cap. 4. See also Potter's Gr. Antiq. vol. ii, m Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 32, p. 313. p. 14. of temper and gentleness of manners they nearly resemble the elephant. Some of these oxen are valued at nearly two hundred pounds sterling." They were also employed in the barn-floor to drag the tribulum or threshing instrument over the sheaves in order to separate the grain from the chaff; or to tread out the corn with their feet; but labours of this kind, rather belong to another part of these Illustrations,—from the agricultural state of the East. The flesh of the herd was not only used by the chosen people, but also reckoned, when young, one of their greatest delicacies. The patriarch Abraham accordingly, with ardent hospitality, entertained the angels under the oak at Mamre with "a calf, tender and good ;" and the pythoness, at Endor, could think of nothing so delicious and acceptable to set before Saul, as a calf fattened in treading out the corn. The young of the herd, were numbered among the blessings which Jehovah promised to bestow upon his ransomed people, and classed with the choicest viands: The father of the family in the parable, had nothing more delicious to set before his repentant son, than the fatted calf: "Therefore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all." The voluptuous nobles of Israel, in the days of Amos, lay upon beds of ivory, and VOL. II. n Forbes's Orient. Mem. vol. iii, p. 99. P 1 Sam. xxviii, 24. 9 Luke xv, 23. * Jer. xxxi, 12. C |