s shall flow with milk." Amos ix. 13: "The mountains shall drop
sweet wine and all the hills shall melt." But cf. especially Virg.,
_Ecl._, iv. 18-30: _At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu_, etc.

"Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,
And fragrant herbs (the promises of spring)
As her first off'rings to her infant king.

* * * * *

Unlaboured harvest shall the fields adorn,
And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn;
The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep,
And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep."
(Dryden's Trans.)

81 The legend of the ox and ass adoring our Lord arose from an
allegorical interpretation of Isa. i. 3: "The ox knoweth his owner,
the ass his master's crib." Origen (_Homilies on St. Luke_ xiii.)
is the first to allegorise on the passage in Isaiah, where the word
for "crib" in the Greek translation of the O. T. is identical with
St. Luke's word for "manger" (_phatne_). After referring to the
circumstances of the Nativity, Origen proceeds to say: "That was
what the prophet foretold, saying, 'The ox knoweth,' etc. The Ox is
a clean animal: the Ass an unclean one. The Ass knew his master's
crib (_praesepe domini sui_): not the people of Israel, but the
unclean animal out of pagan nations knew its master's crib. 'But
Israel hath not known me: and my people hath not understood.' Let us
understand this and press forward to the crib, recognise the Master
and be made worthy of his knowledge." The thought that the Ox = the
Jews and the Ass = Pagans, reappears in Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose
and Jerome. See an interesting article by Mr. Austin West (_Ox and
Ass Legend of the Nativity_. _Cont. Review_, Dec. 1903), who notes
the further impetus given to the legend by the Latin rendering of
Habb. iii. 2 (LXX.) which in the _Vetus Itala_ version appears as
"in medio duorum animalium in notesceris," "in the midst of two
animals shalt thou be known" (R.V., _in the midst of the years make
it known_). The legend does not appear in apocryphal Christian
literature earlier than in the _Pseudo-Matthew Gospel_, which
belongs to the later fifth century. It is interesting to note that
with St. Francis and the Franciscans the ox and t