[Footnote 45: _Fleurs de Catholicisme_, vol. iii. p. 236.]
The ox and ass are indispensable accessories to a picture of the Nativity, and it is said that their introduction rests on an old tradition mentioned by St. Jerome, and also on a text of prophecy: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib."[46] Tradition says that these animals recognised and worshipped their Divine Master.
In præsepe ponitur, Sub foeno asinorum, Cognoverunt Dominum, Christum, Regem coelorum.
Et a brutis noscitur, Matris velo tegitur.
So also it is believed in many places that at midnight on Christmas eve all cattle bowed their knees; and Brand gives an instance of this legend, and says "that a Cornish peasant told him in 1790 of his having, with some others, watched several oxen in their stalls on the Eve of old Christmas Day, and that at twelve o'clock, they observed the two oldest oxen fall upon their knees and (as he expressed it in the idiom of the country) make a cruel moan like Christian creatures."
There is another legend which relates how other animals took part in the announcement of the Saviour's coming on earth. Prætorius says:
Vacca _puer natus_ clamabat nocte sub ipsa, Qua Christus purâ virgine natus homo est; Sed, quia dicenti nunquam bene creditur uni, Addebat facti testis, asellus; _ita_. Dumque aiebat; _ubi?_ clamoso guttere gallus; _In Betlem, Betlem_, vox geminabat ovis. Felices nimium pecudes, pecorumque magistri, Qui norunt Dominum concelebrare suum.
Hone describes a curious sheet of carols printed in London in 1701. "It is headed 'CHRISTUS NATUS EST; _Christ is born_,' with a wood-cut 10 inches high by 8-1/2 inches wide, representing the stable of Bethlehem; Christ in the crib, watched by the Virgin and Joseph; shepherds kneeling, angels attending; a man playing on the bagpipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a sheep bleating, and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking, and a crow cawing, on the hay rack; a cock crowing above them; and angels singing in the sky. The animals have labels from their mouths bearing Latin inscriptions. Down the side of the wood-cut is the following account and explanation:--'A religious man inventing the concerts of both birds and beasts drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them: The cock croweth, _Christus natus est_--Christ is born. The raven asked _Quando_?--When? The crow replied, _Hac nocte_--this night. The ox crieth out, _Ubi? Ubi?_--Where? Where? The sheep bleateth out _Bethlehem_. A voice from heaven sounded, _Gloria in Excelsis_--Glory be on high!'"