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| | *Ø* Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine | Book of Days | January 14 | Feast of the Ass, Whopping mallard, Mallard ... |
 | | Bacchanalean and calendary observances, by the substitution of Christian spectacles, partaking of a similar spirit of licentiousness, a principle of accommodation to the manners and prejudices of an ignorant people, which led to a still further adoption of rites, more or less imitated from the pagans. |
 | | According to the pagan mythology, an ass, by its braying, saved Vesta from brutal violence, and, in consequence, ‘the coronation of the ass’ formed part of the ceremonial feast of the chaste goddess.” |
 | | He took only brief holidays, and then as Henry Lawson recorded, “he comes back looking 10 years older but completely recovers his old form after a week’s work that would blind and turn the brain of another man”. |
| www.wilsonsalmanac.com /book/jan14.html (3269 words) |
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