According to Mr. Brand, “a superstitious notion prevails in the western
parts of Devonshire, that at twelve o’clock at night on Christmas-eve,
the oxen in their stalls are always found on their knees, as in an
attitude of devotion; and that (which is still more singular) since the
alteration of the style, they continue to do this only on the eve of old
Christmas-day. An honest countryman, living on the edge of St. Stephen’s
Down, near Launceston, Cornwall, informed me, October 28, 1790, that he
once, with some others, made a trial of the truth of the above, and
watching several oxen in their stalls at the above time, at twelve
o’clock at night, they observed the two oldest oxen only fall upon their
knees, and, as he expressed it in the idiom of the country, make ‘a
cruel moan like christian creatures.’ I could not but with great
difficulty keep my countenance: he saw, and seemed angry that I gave so
little credit to his tale, and, walking off in a pettish humour, seemed
to ‘marvel at my unbelief.’ There is an old print of the Nativity, in
which the oxen in the stable, near the virgin and the child, are
represented upon their knees, as in a suppliant posture. This graphic
representation has probably given rise to the above superstitious notion
on this head.” Mr. Brand refers to “an old print,” as if he had only
observed _one_ with this representation; whereas, they abound, and to
the present day the ox and the ass are in the wood-cuts of the nativity
on our common Christmas carols. Sannazarius, a Latin poet of the
fifteenth century, in his poem _De Partu Virginis_, which he was several
years in composing, and twenty years in revising, and which chiefly
contributed to the celebrity of his name among the Italians, represents
that the virgin wrapped up the new-born infant, and put him into her
bosom; that the cattle cherished him with their breath, an ox fell on
his knees, and an ass did the same. He declares them both happy,
promises they shall be honoured at all the altars in Rome, and
apostrophizes the virgin on occasion of the respect the ox and ass have
shown her. To a quarto edition of this Latin poem, with an Italian
translation by Gori, printed at Florence in 1740, there is a print
inscribed “Sacrum monumentum in antiquo vitro Romæ in Museo Victorio,”
from whence the preceding engraving is presented, as a curious
illustration of the obviously ancient mode of delineating the subject.
In the edition just mentioned of Sannazarius’s exceedingly curious poem,
which is described in the editor’s often cited volume on “Ancient
Mysteries,” there are other engravings of the nativity with the ox and
the ass, from sculptures on ancient sarcophagi at Rome. This
introduction of the ox and the ass warming the infant in the crib with
their breath, is a fanciful construction by catholic writers on Isaiah
i. 3; “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.”
* * * * *
Sannazarius was a distinguished statesman in the kingdom of Naples. His
superb tomb in the church of St. Mark is decorated with two figures
originally executed for and meant to represent Apollo and Minerva; but
as it appeared indecorous to admit heathen divinities into a christian
church, and the figures were thought too excellent to be removed, the
person who shows the church is instructed to call them David and Judith:
“You mistake,” said a sly rogue who was one of a party surveying the
curiosities, “the figures are St. George, and the queen of Egypt’s
daughter.” The demonstrator made a low bow, and thanked him.[421]
* * * * *