THE OXEN:
DID YOU KNOW. . . ?

Oxen have four stomachs. If one ate, say, a baby that was left in its hay bin, or “manger,” no one would ever know.

A sandwich shop in Thomas Hardy’s home town, Higher Bockhampton, a hamlet in Dorset, England, once did homage to this poem by offering an oxburger on its menu. The few people who tried one reported that it tasted like McChicken.

The actual date of the birth of Jesus was assigned to December 25th centuries after his death, having swiped the date from the ancient pagan Saturnalia festival. Scholars consider this to be proof that oxen follow the Gregorian and not the Julian calendar.

When oxen and other barnyard animals seem to be kneeling, their hind legs are actually bent backwards. For some reason, Mr. Hardy seemed to think this potentially painful condition is hilarious.

Someone once tried that old “Come see the oxen kneel in the lonely barton' by yonder coomb our childhood used to know” line on Thomas Hardy. Hardy turned the matter over to Scotland Yard, who found out that the “man” was actually Mrs. Hardy, disguised in one of the poet’s cast-off old moustaches.