The Call of the Donkey

Why does the donkey bray? Because the donkey remembers a time when he had no master. In packs a thousand strong, donkey roamed the land alongside his cousin, horse. Horse was faster over short distances, but donkey was smaller, stronger, and braver and could go farther than any other creature. Donkey explored the mountains, the desert, and the forests and found a home everywhere he went.

Man came to the lower steppes and all the creatures moved away from their loud, foul smelling village. Donkey moved too, but donkey was brave and curious, so when a creature that was like a wolf but not a wolf came to donkey with his tongue hanging out, donkey didn't run but listened to all the noise he made.

“I live with my master! He feeds me everyday! He gives me the best food from his table, my master does! We go everywhere together, master and me!”

“Where is your master now?” Donkey asked.

“Oh, master had a bad day and was angry, so I left. But I must go back now, it's nearly dinner time and there will be food for me!”

After dog left, donkey talked about him and said he was a silly creature, with his tongue hanging out and making so much noise. But some donkeys were curious about dog’s master, who gave him food twice a day. Some donkeys didn't like running across the deserts, over the mountains, and through forests. Some days were long and difficult and no food was to be found. And in the winter it was cold and in the summer it was hot and sometimes there was no water and sometimes there was only ice and they were thirsty when night came.

One donkey said they should leave man to their village and follow the other creatures. “We don't need a master to feed us; we can go further than all other creatures and we always find what we need.” This donkey was nearly as big as a horse and just as fast, so some donkeys listened to him -- but not many.

"You’re just scared of man. Real donkeys are always brave,” said another donkey.

The next day, most of the donkeys went down to visit man. They walked through his village and peered into his houses, and man hid under their blankets because the donkeys were big and strong. But all the dogs came out and made lots of noise. There were many dogs in the village, more dogs than men, and they circled the donkeys and barked at them.

Hearing their dogs outside, man crawled out from under his blankets and joined them. The donkeys thought they were very funny and they rubbed their noses over man and let them scratch their backs like they did to the dogs. Man gave the donkeys carrots and apples and grass, and the donkeys ate them all until they were fat and round and tired and happy. Right there, in the middle of the village, they lay down and slept on the ground, which they had never done before.

In the morning they woke up to the roosters’ calls and found that a fence had been built around them and that ropes had been tied over their necks. They kicked and screamed, but could not escape. Soon they were tired and thirsty, because man did not feed them when they fought.

They were given kitchen scraps which made them fat and round and tired and slow. And man favored the smallest donkeys, who were slower, but could go farther and carry more weight and rarely ever fought with them. And in time, the village donkeys became timid shadows of the creatures they had once been.

Many winters passed until the donkeys that had stayed away from man returned to the high steppes and peered down on their captured brothers. The village donkeys saw them high on the ridge and remembered how it felt to run across the fields and over the mountains and through the forests and they kicked and screamed and even broke their fences to escape. But man had ropes around their feet and necks and quickly brought the donkeys back.

Man had seen the great donkeys on the ridge and knew that they would cause problems. Each time they came, the village donkeys went mad with the desire to escape, so man decided to capture the last of the great donkeys.

They tried to chase them on their village donkeys, who were much too slow now. Man remembered the giant horses they'd seen long before who were faster than donkeys over short distances. They agreed, “That's what we'll need to capture these bothersome donkeys.”

Man hunted horses for many days and while his donkey was much slower, it could keep going, all day and all night, until the horses couldn’t run any further. Man tied ropes around the horses’ necks, gave them nothing to eat or drink, and when they were almost too weak to stand, slowly dragged the horses back to their village.

When the great donkeys returned to the high steppes, the village donkeys kicked and screamed and tried to warn them to run away. But man heard the commotion, climbed on his horses, and chased the donkeys across the high steppes. He knew the great donkeys were almost as fast as the horses and could go much further, so he made a plan to surround them, like he'd seen the dogs do to the village donkeys long before.

Some men rode towards the mountains, others towards the forests and the deserts, and then they turned in towards each other and closed their giant circle on the great donkeys. In this way, the great donkeys were caught. Even the horse, which is a very arrogant creature, was amazed at the strength and beauty of the great donkey, with his thick, striped hair and his rich, brown eyes; he was so unlike the dull, tired, lifeless creatures they saw in the village.

Man wanted to capture the great donkeys, since they were even better than the horses, but the great donkeys would not stop fighting. Man said “We cannot capture these creatures, they're much too strong; but we cannot let them go free, they make our donkeys angry and then our donkeys fight with us.” So man lifted his spears and brought the last of the great donkeys down. And far away, the village donkeys heard their brother's final screams and took this call as their own.