Chapter Aspersions to Astarte of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Asses that carry the mysteries (asinus portat mysteria). A classical knock at the Roman clergy. The allusion is to the custom of employing asses to carry the cista which contained the sacred symbols, when processions were made through the streets. (Warburton: Divine Legaton, ii. 4.)

Well, well! honey is not for the ass's mouth. Persuasion will not persuade fools. The gentlest words will not divert the anger of the unreasonable.

Wrangle for an ass's shadow. To contend about trifles. The tale told by Demosthenes is, that a man hired an ass to take him to Megara; and at noon, the sun being very hot, the traveller dismounted, and sat himself down in the shadow of the ass. Just then the owner came up and claimed the right of sitting in this shady spot, saying that he let out the ass for hire, but there was no bargain made about the ass's shade. The two men then fell to blows to settle the point in dispute. A passer-by told the traveller to move on, and leave the owner of the beast to walk in the ass's shadow as long as he thought proper.

Ass's Bridge (The). Prop. 5, book i. of Euclid. This is the first difficult proposition in geometry, and stupid boys rarely get over it the first time without tripping.

It is the ass's pitfall, not his bridge.

If this be rightly called the "Bridge of Asses,"
He's not the fool who sticks, but he that passes.
E.C.B.

Asses (Feast of). (See Fools .)

Ass-eared Midas had the ears of an ass. The tale says Apollo and Pan had a contest, and chose Midas to decide which was the better musician. Midas gave sentence in favour of Pan; and Apollo, in disgust, changed his ears into those of an ass.

Assassins A band of Carmathians, collected by Hassan, subah of Nishapour, called the Old Man of the Mountains, because he made Mount Lebanon his stronghold. This band was the terror of the world for two centuries, when it was put down by Sultan Bibaris. The assassins indulged in haschisch (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor received their name. (A.D. 1090.)

"The Assassins ... before they attacked the enemy, Would intoxicate themselves with a powder made of hemp-leaves ... called hashish." - J. Wolff.

Assay or Essay. To take the assay is to taste wine to prove it is not poisoned. Hence, to try, to taste; a savour, trial, or sample. Holinshed says, "Wolsey made dukes and earls serve him of wine with a say taken" (p. 847).

Edmund, in King Lear (v. 5), says to Edgar, "Thy tongue, some say of breeding breathes;" i.e. thy speech gives indication of good breeding - it savours of it. Hence the expression, I make my first assay (trial).

"[He] makes vow before his uncle never more
To give the assay of arms against your majesty."
Shakespeare: Hamlet, ii. 2.

A cup of assay. A cup for the assay of wine.

To put it in assay. To put it to the test.

Assaye Regiment The 74th Foot, so called because they first distinguished themselves in the battle of Assaye, where 2,000 British and 2,500 Sepoy troops under Wellington defeated 50,000 Mahrattas, commanded by French officers, in 1803. This regiment is now called "the 2nd Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry." The first battalion was the old No. 71.

Assiento Treaties [Spanish, agreement treaties.] Contracts entered into by Spain with Portugal, France, and England, to supply her South American colonies with negro slaves. England joined in 1713, after the peace of Utrecht.