ASPHALTUM ('as-fartiim), (Heb. khay mawr', boiling up, to be red, also slime, and pitch). Luther, like the modern Rabbins, erroneously trans lates the Hebrew by 'clay.' The Hehrewand Arabic names probably refer to the reddish color of some of the specimens (Dioscorides 99). The Greek name, whence the Latin Asphaltum is doubtless derived from the Lake Asphaltites (Dead Sea), whence it was abundantly obtained. Usually, how ever, asphaltum, or compact bitumen, is of a shin ing black color; it is solid and brittle, with a con choidal fracture, altogether not unlike common pitch. To judge from Gen. xiv: to, mines of as phaltum must have existed formerly on the spot where subsequently the Dead Sea, or Lake As pha Itites,was formed, such as Mariti ( Travels, iv:27) discovered on the western shore of that sea. The Palestine earth-pitch, however, seems to have had the preference over all the other sorts (Plin.xxviii: 23; Discor. i, p. 'co). It was used among the ancients partly for covering boats, paying the bottoms of vessels (Comp. Niebuhr ii, p. Gen.vi:14; Exod. ii: 3; Joseph. De Bell. 'la iv:8, 4; Buckingham, Mesotol, p. 346), and partly as a substitute for mor tar in buildings; and it is thought that the bricks of which the walls of Babylon were built (Gen.xi:3; Strabo. xvi, p. 743; Herod i, 179; Plin. xxxv: 51; Ammian. Marcell. xxiii:6; \'irtruv. viii:3; Comp. Joseph. Anti?. i:4, 3) had been cemented with hot bitumen, which imparted to them great solidity.
ASS (as), (Heb. kham-ore' , the male ass; aw-lhone', she ass; Gr. /SPOT, on'os, donkey; insorleywv, hoop-ad:wog' ee-on, under the yoke), Equus Asinus of Linnaeus; by some formed into a subgenus containing that group of the Equithe which are not striped like Zebras, and have forms and characters distinguishable from true horses, such as a peculiar shape of body and limbs, long cars, an upright mane, a tail only tufted at the end, a streak along the spine, often crossed with an other on the shoulders, a braying voice, etc.
Besides the ordinary term Chamor, the Hebrews likewise used Athon, Atm //tun Oirim ; Para ; Orad, Oredia. By these words, no doubt, though not with the strict precision of science, different species and distinct races of the group, as well as qualities of sex and age, were indicated; but the contexts in general afford only slight assistance in discriminating them; and reliance on cognate lan guages is often unavailing, since we find that sim ilar words frequently point to secondary and not to identical acceptations.
(1) Chamor we take to be the name of the com mon working ass of Western Asia; an animal of small stature, frequently represented on Egyptian monuments with panniers on the back, 'usually of a reddish color (the Arabic Hamar and Chamara denoting red), and the same as the Turkish Hy man It appears to be it domesticated race of the wild ass of Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Southern Persia, where it is denominated Gour; in Scripture it is distinguished by the name of Orfal Job xx six: 5), and in the Chaldee of Daniel, Orodur (v:21); both terms being most likely derived from the braying voice of the animal.
In its natural state it never seeks but up land pasture, mountainous and rocky retreats; and it is habituated to stand on the brink of precipices (a practice not entirely obliterated in our own do mestic races), whence, with protruded cars, it sur veys the scene below, blowing, and at length bray ing in extreme excitement. This habit is beauti fully depicted by Jeremiah, when speaking of the Para (xvii: 6), and Orud (xlviii:6), where, instead Oror, heath, we should read Orud, wild ass ; for there is no heath, erica, in Asia. Oir, Oirim ; in the Chaldee Auth. Vers. young ass, colt; hut this rendering does not appear on all occasions to be correct, the word being sometimes used where the Oirim or Ourim carry loads and till the ground, which seems to afford evidence of, at least, full growth (Is. xxx:6, 24). (See Ex. xiii:13; xxiii:4; 2 Kings VI:20; Num. xxii:2o; Prov. xxvi:3; Is. 1:3; %ea. ix:9; Matt. xxi: 5; Luke xiii: 15; xiv: 5; John xii: 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 I Sam. xvi:2o, 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 possibly have compelled the people to eat asses, and a head may have been very dear, still the expression may denote the measure or weight which bore the same name. The prohibition, however, had more probably an economical than a religious purpose: was thus discouraged, and no horses being used, it was of importance to augment the number and improve the qualities of the ass.
As this animal was most serviceable to man, its name was held in respect rather than contempt. The slander, therefore, current among the Romans and directed against the Jews, that they adored the head of an ass in secret, may not have originated in direct malice 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 magical delusions of the Cabala, and new semi-Christians in that city, so deeply indulged during the first 'centuries of Our era.
Para, rendered likewise 'wild ass,' is z der itive of the same root which in Hebrew has produced Arras, horse, and Pirasim, horsemen, Persians and Parthians. Though evidently a gen erical term, the Scripture uses it in a specific sense, and seems to intend by it the horse-ass, nr wild mule which the Greeks denominated I lemi onus, and the moderns Djiggetai; though we think there still remains some commixture in the descriptions of the species and those of the Kou Ian, or wild ass of Northern Asia.