Donkey

choi

James Gorman, In Defense of the Donkey; Disrespect and stubborn myths persist about an animal once buried with kings. New York Times, Nov 1, 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/science/donkeys.html

Note:
(a) "About 5,000 years ago, 10 donkeys were laid to rest in painstakingly constructed brick grave chambers at a site connected with one of the earliest Egyptian kings."
(i) "Four hundred eighty kilometers south of Cairo, the site of Abydos, situated in a great embayment of high cliffs that form the western edge of the Nile Valley, is famous as the burial place of the earliest Egyptian kings"
Rossel S et al, Domestication of the Donkey: Timing, Processes, and Indicators. PNAS, 105: 3715–3720 (2008; from the lab of professor Fiona Marshall).
www.pnas.org/content/105/10/3715.full
(ii) Abydos, Egypt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abydos,_Egypt
(map)
(iii) The donkey site was discovered in 2002. The name of kings are not known, as Egypt was then at the down of state formation.

(b) "their ancestor, the African wild ass, is not a herd animal. Wild asses have individual territories"
(i) African wild ass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_ass
(photo; "Wild asses can run swiftly, almost as fast as a horse. However, unlike most hoofed mammals, their tendency is to not flee right away from a potentially dangerous situation, but to investigate first before deciding what to do. When they need to, they can defend themselves with kicks from both their front and hind legs")
(ii) "Donkeys are adapted to marginal desert lands. Unlike wild and feral horses, wild donkeys in dry areas are solitary and do not form harems. Each adult donkey [both male and female] establishes a home range * * * Donkeys have a notorious reputation for stubbornness, but this has been attributed to a much stronger sense of self-preservation than exhibited by horses.[24] Likely based on a stronger prey instinct and a weaker connection with man, it is considerably more difficult to force or frighten a donkey into doing something it perceives to be dangerous for whatever reason."
donkey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey

(c) "Balaam's donkey"

Numbers 22:21-38King James Version (KJV).
https://www.biblegateway.com/pas ... -38&version=KJV
("And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me")
(i) wherefor = why (in ancient English)
(ii) O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?  The Phrase Finder, undated.
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/262200.html