The head of the ass Dapple in the February 11 1955 work Don Quixote’s Metamorphosis is a reminder of the precursory tale titled “The Golden Ass” and the open mouth is symbolic of Lucius the scholar and protagonist that is transformed into an ass by his curiosity about magic. The open mouth in ancient times was a symbol of the great swallow or Pisces. In the Egyptian book of the dead the opening of the mouth ceremony helps the deceased speak and eat in the afterlife. These symbolic references are found throughout the February 11 1955 work and they are not in the August drawing by Picasso as he terminated those to communise the work for the party magazine a further Deconstruction of the pantheistic original cosmological conception. The attentive ear of the ass is in the exact shape of the constellation Aries suggesting to the viewer that you should pay attention because this ass has something significant to say!