Part Second. Origin and Ancient History of the Sheep

Chapter I. Sheep’s Wool.

SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS—ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

The Shepherd Boy—Sheep-breeding in Scythia and Persia—Mesopotamia and Syria—In Idumæa and Northern Arabia—In Palestine and Egypt—In Ethiopia and Libya—In Caucasus and Coraxi—The Coraxi identified with the modern Caratshai—In Asia Minor, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Samos, &c.—In Caria and Ionia—Milesian wool—Sheep-breeding in Thrace, Magnesia, Thessaly, Eubœa, and Bœotia—In Phocis, Attica, and Megaris—In Arcadia—Worship of Pan—Pan the god of the Arcadian Shepherds—Introduction of his worship into Attica—Extension of the worship of Pan—His dances with the nymphs—Pan not the Egyptian Mendes, but identical with Faunus—The philosophical explanation of Pan rejected—Moral, social, and political state of the Arcadians—Polybius on the cultivation of music by the Arcadians—Worship of Mercury in connection with sheep-breeding and the wool trade—Present state of Arcadia—Sheep-breeding in Macedonia and Epirus—Shepherds’ dogs—Annual migration of Albanian shepherds.

The Shepherd Boy.

The rain was pattering o’er the low thatch’d shed
That gave us shelter. There was a shepherd boy,
Stretching his lazy limbs on the rough straw,
In vacant happiness. A tatter’d sack
Cover’d his sturdy loins, while his rude legs
Were deck’d with uncouth patches of all hues,
Iris and jet, through which his sun-burnt skin
Peep’d forth in dainty contrast. He was a glory
For painter’s eye; and his quaint draperies
Would harmonize with some fair sylvan scene,
Where arching groves, and flower-embroider’d banks,
Verdant with thymy grass, tempted the sheep
To scramble up their height, while he, reclin’d
Upon the pillowing moss, lay listlessly
Through the long summer’s day. Not such as he,
In plains of Thessaly, as poets feign,
Went piping forth at the first gleam of morn,
And in their bowering thickets dreamt of joy,
And innocence, and love. Let the true lay
Speak thus of the poor hind:—His indolent gaze
Reck’d not of natural beauties; his delights
Were gross and sensual: not the glorious sun,
Rising above his hills, and lighting up
His woods and pastures with a joyous beam,
To him was grandeur; not the reposing sound
Of tinkling flocks cropping the tender shoots,
To him was music; not the blossomy breeze
That slumbers in the honey-dropping bean-flower,
To him was fragrance: he went plodding on
His long-accustomed path; and when his cares
Of daily duties were o’erpass’d, he ate,
And laugh’d, and slept, with a most drowsy mind.
Dweller in cities, scorn’st thou the shepherd boy,
Who never look’d within to find the eye
For Nature’s glories? Know, his slumbering spirit
Struggled to pierce the fogs and deepening mists
Of rustic ignorance; but he was bound
With a harsh galling chain, and so he went
Grovelling along his dim instinctive way.
Yet thou hadst other hopes and other thoughts,
But the world spoil’d thee: then the mutable clouds,
And doming skies, and glory-shedding sun,
And tranquil stars that hung above thy head
Like angels gazing on thy crowded path,
To thee were worthless, and thy soul forsook
The love of beauteous fields, and the blest lore
That man may read in Nature’s book of truth.
Despise not, then, the lazy shepherd boy:
For his account and thine shall be made up,
And evil cherish’d and occasion lost
May cast their load upon thee, while his spirit
May bud and bloom in a more sunny sphere.

The inquiry into the origin and propagation of sheep, no less than of the silk-worm, may be justly regarded as a subject of the deepest interest. For the management and use of these animals has, from the earliest dawn of human history, formed a striking feature in the condition of man. Of the materials employed by the ancients for making cloth, by far the most important was the wool of sheep. We are able to trace with great probability the process of sheep-breeding and of the use of wool for weaving. Among the bones of quadrupeds, found in ancient caves throughout Europe, we cannot find on consulting the works of Cuvier, Buckland, and De la Beche, that remains of sheep have ever been discovered. This fact affords some reason for presuming, that the sheep is not a native of Europe, but has been introduced there by man.

It appears to have been a general opinion among Zoologists, that the Argali, or Ovis Ammon of Linnæus, which inhabits in vast numbers the elevated regions of Central Asia, is the primitive stock of the whole race of domesticated sheep. Agreeably to this supposition we find, that from the earliest times the inhabitants of Tartary, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and the North of Arabia, have been addicted to pastoral employments. The tribes of wandering shepherds, which frequent those countries, are descended from progenitors, who led the same life thousands of years ago, and whose manners and habits are preserved to the present day with scarcely the slightest change.

As might be expected, we have little precise information respecting the Scythians, who inhabited the elevated plains of inner Asia. Some of their hordes are distinguished by Herodotus, Strabo, and others, under the name of Nomadic or pastoral Scythians; and that this denomination was understood to imply, that they tended sheep as well as larger cattle may be inferred from what Herodotus says of their use of felt (See Appendix B.). Strabo, moreover, says of a particular tribe of the Massagetæ, that they had “few sheep,” which implies that the rest were rich in flocks; and of another tribe he says, “They do not till the ground, but derive their sustenance from sheep and fish, after the manner of the Nomadic Scythians.” But a much more distinct account of the manners of this people is given us by Justin, who says, that they were accustomed to wander through uncultivated solitudes, always employed in tending herds and flocks (armenta et pecora). He, however, adds, that they were strangers to the use of woollen garments, being clothed in skins and furs. Hence it appears, that they were too rude and ignorant to have acquired the arts of spinning and weaving.

If we may trust to the authority of Strabo, the Medes did not tend sheep; for he says of them, “They eat the flesh of wild animals; they do not bring up tame cattle.” Nevertheless, their southern neighbors, the Persians, with whom they were united under one government, had sheep in abundance. These animals are strikingly represented in the bas-reliefs of Persepolis. In one of them, which represents a long procession sculptured on the wall of a splendid staircase, two rams, attended by keepers, are accompanied in the same train by horses, asses, camels, and oxen. Herodotus, in his account of the manners and institutions of the Persians (L. i. cap. 133.), mentions all these animals together in the following passage: “Of all days they are accustomed to observe most that on which each individual was born. On this day they set before their guests a more abundant feast than on any other. The wealthy provide an ox, a horse, a camel, and an ass, roasted whole in furnaces; and the poor provide the smaller cattle.” By “the smaller cattle,” this author always means sheep and goats.

The superior excellence of the rich plains of Mesopotamia for the pasture of sheep as well as oxen, is attested by Dionysius Periegetes, and his account illustrates in an interesting manner the history of Jacob as contained in the book of Genesis, the rapid multiplication of the flocks and herds showing how well the soil and climate were adapted to this pursuit, and how well the business of tending them was there understood from the earliest times. Seldom do we find in any ancient author so beautiful a picture as is presented to us, when Jacob arrives at Padan-aram, and sees the flocks of sheep and goats assembling from the neighboring pastures in the evening to be watered at the well. Rachel appears conducting the flock of her father Laban, which she tended, and Jacob rolls from the mouth of the well the stone, which was placed to preserve the water cool and fresh, and assists his relative and future bride in watering her sheep. (Gen. xxix. 1-10.) Also on Jacob’s departure his remonstrance with Laban presents to us an animated representation of the duties and difficulties of the shepherd’s life; “These twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it: of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.” (Gen. xxxi. 38-40.)

From Ezekiel we learn, that Damascus supplied the Tyrians with wool, and Jerome, who well knew the country, says in his comment on the passage, that this article was still produced there in his time (A. D. 378.). Aristotle, referring to the sheep of Syria, mentions a variety with tails, which were a cubit broad; and Pliny in addition to this circumstance asserts generally the abundance of the Syrian wool. Probably the part of Syria appropriated more especially to the breeding of sheep, was the eastern part, which bordered on Arabia, and was distinguished by the same natural features.

In no part of the ancient world does sheep-breeding appear to have been more cultivated than in that which we are now approaching. Here were the Moabites, among whom it was a royal occupation, and, as it appears, the chief source of the revenues of the sovereign: for it is said in 2 Kings iii. 4. “Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep-master, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs and an hundred thousand rams with the wool.” Here on occasion of a war, which the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, whose territory was to the east of Jordan, carried on against the Hagarites, they obtained as part of their booty 250,000 sheep. (I. Chron. v. 21.) Here was Idumæa, in a part of which Job is represented to have dwelt, being possessed of 7,000, and afterwards of 14,000 sheep (Job i. 3. xlii. 12.): and we have a beautiful allusion to the pastoral habits of the same country in the language of consolation employed by the prophet Micah (ii. 12.): “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bosrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.” Here also were the Midianites, whose flocks were so vast, that the sheep taken from them by Moses after his victory amounted to 675,000. (Num. xxxi. 32.) Jethro, the priest of Midian, was himself the owner of a numerous flock, tended by his seven daughters, whom Moses assisted in watering them, when the neighboring shepherds rudely attempted to drive them from the well. He afterwards married one of them, and was employed by the father as his shepherd; and, having occasion according to the practice of the country to conduct the flock from the plains to pasture upon the mountains of Horeb, he was thence called to undertake his extraordinary mission for the deliverance of his nation. (Exod. ii. 15-iii. 1.)

The Arabs appear from the earliest times to the present day to have bestowed no less attention upon sheep than upon horses. Isaiah also records the excellence of the sheep of Arabia in the following terms addressed by the Almighty to his people (Ch. lx. 7.): “All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.” The habits of the Nebatæi, or Arabs of Nebaioth, are depicted as follows by Diodorus Siculus: “They live in the open air, and call a land their country, which is destitute of habitations, and has neither rivers nor copious fountains, such as could satisfy an army of invaders. Their law forbids them on pain of death either to sow corn, to plant fruit-trees, to use wine, or to build houses. They submit to this law, because they think, that those who enjoy such conveniences may for the sake of them be readily compelled by the powerful to do what they command. Some of them rear camels, and others sheep, which they pasture in the wilderness.”

Various ancient authors mention that extraordinary variety of sheep among the Arabs, the tail of which grew to so great a size as to require to be supported on a wooden carriage, which was dragged after the wearer.

We have no reason to believe, that the Phœnicians employed themselves in the breeding and pasture of sheep. The narrow strip of territory, which they occupied at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea, was in general too densely peopled to be adapted for this purpose. Their activity, intelligence, and enterprize were directed into other channels, and they supplied themselves from foreign countries with wool for their celebrated manufactures.

On the other hand, the Hebrews, who were the immediate neighbors of the Phœnicians, were altogether an agricultural and pastoral people. The history of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, presents to us beautiful images of the kind of life, which still continues with little variation among the Bedouins, or wandering Nomads of Arabia. Not only was David a shepherd boy; but, when he had ascended the throne, he had numerous herds and flocks superintended by distinct officers. “And over the herds that fed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite: and over the herds that were in the valleys was Shaphat the son of Adlai. Over the camels also was Obil the Ishmaelite: and over the asses was Jehdeiah the Meronothite: and over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagarite. All these were the rulers of the substance which was king David’s.” (I. Chron. xxvii. 29-31.) The reader cannot fail to call to mind David’s frequent allusions in the Psalms to those employments, which were no less familiar to his own mind than to the rest of his countrymen, and which supplied to them the most touching comparisons for the expression of their deepest religious convictions. The passage “The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod (or crook) and thy staff, they comfort me” (Psalm xxiii. 1, 2, 4.). “He shall feed (i. e. tend) his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Is. xl. ii.). “The pastures are clothed with flocks,” an expression denoting the vast multitudes of sheep, which overspread the mountains and plains (Ps. lxv. 13.). “Be thou diligent,” says Solomon, “to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of thy field; and thou shalt have goat’s milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens” (Prov. xxvii. 23. 26, 27.). We would particularly refer the reader to the thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, where the prophet, reprimanding the rulers of Israel under the character of shepherds, makes some allusion to every circumstance connected with the care of sheep and goats. Language very similar is employed by our Saviour in John x. where he speaks of himself as “the good shepherd.” The whole system and history of the sacrifices both before and after the giving of the Mosaic law, might be produced to prove the pastoral habits of this people from the earliest times. The districts of Bashan and Carmel, seem to have attained the highest reputation in respect to the breeding of sheep. Bashan, which lay to the east of the Jordan in the country adjoining that of the Hagarites and Moabites, already mentioned, and Carmel, the mountainous range near the Dead Sea in the south of Judea. In the latter district Nabal kept his flocks, and as he is said to have been “very great,” and we are at the same time informed that “he had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats” (I. Sam. xxv. 2.), these numbers afford us a precise idea of the wealth of a considerable proprietor in this respect. That the “rams of the breed of Bashan,” were particularly celebrated, we learn from Deut. xxxii. 14; and Ezekiel mentions with distinction (ch. xxxix. 18.) a sacrifice “of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.”

It is impossible to conceive a more striking difference in manners and institutions, than that which must have presented itself to the traveller in very ancient times, when on crossing the Isthmus of Suez he passed from the deserts of Arabia and Idumæa to the richly cultivated and populous plains of Egypt. According to the statement already quoted from an ancient historian the wandering tribes of Nabaioth were forbidden by a positive law to till the ground or to construct settled habitations, and they lived on the produce of their flocks, which they continually led from place to place in pursuit of pasture adapted to the season of the year. The Egyptians, on the contrary, appear to have been originally under a prohibition of exactly the opposite kind, since they cultivated the ground with care, excelled most other nations in all the arts of life, and produced the most splendid proofs of their architectural skill, but were not allowed to keep flocks of sheep and goats. That this was the case at the time, when Jacob took his family to sojourn in Egypt, is evident from their application to Pharaoh on arriving in the land of Goshen, which was on the eastern border of Egypt adjoining Palestine and Arabia, to be permitted to remain there on the ground, that from their youth they had been accustomed to tend flocks, whereas “every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians.”

It appears that the Nabatæan law was far more effectual towards the attainment of its object than the Egyptian. For, whereas the pastoral tribes of Arabia have retained their independence and their national peculiarities even to the present day; the Egyptians, on the other hand, became a prey to foreign invasion, and among other changes in their customs we have to notice the introduction of the management of sheep. Even as early as the time of Moses the practice had commenced; for in the account of the effects of the murrain in Exodus ix. 3, we find mention of sheep, and indeed it is remarkable, that the domestic animals there enumerated, viz. horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, are exactly the same, which, as we have before shown, were bred by the ancient Persians. Later historians afford distinct testimony to the same fact. Thus Diodorus Siculus says, that “upon the subsidence of the waters after the inundation of the Nile the flocks were admitted to pasture, and the produce of the soil was so abundant, that the sheep were not only shorn twice, but also brought forth young twice in the year.” Herodotus also plainly supposes, that sheep and goats were bred in Egypt, when he contrasts the inhabitants of the Theban Nome, who worshipped Ammon, with the inhabitants of the Mendesian Nome, who worshipped Mendes. The former, he says, “all abstain from sheep, and sacrifice goats;” the latter “abstain from goats, which they hold in veneration, and sacrifice sheep.” He, however, mentions that the Thebans slew a ram once a year on occasion of a particular ceremony, which he describes (ii. 42. 46.). The testimony of Strabo and Plutarch, though differing in some particulars from that of Herodotus, is to the same general effect. Aristotle (l. c.) mentions, that the sheep of Egypt were larger than those of Greece.

But, although these passages show, that sheep were bred in Egypt, we think it evident that their number was very limited. Egyptian wool cannot have been of the least importance as an article of commerce. What was produced must also have been consumed in the country. For, although the chief material for the clothing of the Egyptians was linen, and they were forbidden to be buried in woollen or to use it in the temples, yet Herodotus (ii. 81.) states, that on ordinary occasions they wore a garment of white wool over their linen shirt. They also used wool for embroidering. According to Pliny the Egyptian wool was coarse and of a short staple. Tertullian records a saying of the Egyptians, that Mercury invented the spinning of wool in their country.

Strabo in an instructive manner contrasts the Ethiopians with the Egyptians. Having observed, that the boundary between the two nations was the smaller cataract above Syene and Elephantine, he says, that the Ethiopians led for the most part a pastoral life without resources, both on account of their intemperate climate and the poverty of their soil, and also because they were remote from the civilized world; whereas the Egyptians had always lived in a refined manner and under a regular government, settled in fixed habitations, and cultivating philosophy, agriculture, and the arts. Thus do we find the nomad life recurring immediately to the south of Egypt. Strabo further states, that the Ethiopian sheep were small, and instead of being woolly were hairy like goats, on which account the people wore skins instead of woollen cloth. That these sheep were held in some estimation by the Egyptians is, however, manifest from the fact, that in the splendid procession exhibited at Alexandria by Ptolemy Philadelphus, there were 130 sheep from Ethiopia, 300 from Arabia, and 20 from Eubœa . Also, that the pastoral habits of the Ethiopians were known to the Romans may be inferred from the allusion, which Virgil makes to them in his Tenth Eclogue (l. 64-68.):

No toils of ours can change the cruel god,
Though we should flee him through each new abode;
Whether we drink, where chilling Hebrus flows,
And winter reigns amid Sithonian snows;
Or, where the elms beneath hot Cancer bend,
Our Ethiopian sheep we fainting tend.

We find, that the people of Libya had attained to some distinction in the management of flocks. What Diodorus says of the Egyptian sheep is asserted by Aristotle of those of Libya, viz. that they produced young twice in the year. That sheep-breeding had extended hither in very early times appears from a passage in the Odyssey, which, however, in consequence of the remoteness of the situation and the imperfect knowledge of geography in the time of the writer, is mixed with fable, inasmuch as it represents, that the ewes brought forth not only twice, but even three times in the year, and that the lambs were immediately provided with horns.

That happy clime! where each revolving year
The teeming ewes a triple offspring bear,
And two fair crescents of translucent horn
The brows of all their young increase adorn;
The shepherd swains, with sure abundance blest,
On the fat flock and rural dainties feast;
Nor want of herbage makes the dairy fail,
But every season fills the foaming pail.

Pope’s Translation.

Pindar (Pyth. ix. 11.) distinguishes Libya by the epithet πολύμηλος, “abounding in flocks.” To the same district of Africa, Virgil alludes in the following passage of the Georgics, which is surpassed by few as a happy example of the art of the poet in describing the various modes of pastoral life.

Why should I sing of Libya’s artless swains;
Her scatter’d cottages and trackless plains?
By day, by night, without a destined home,
For many a month their flocks all lonely roam;
So vast th’ unbounded solitude appears,
While, with his flock, his all the shepherd bears,
His arms, his household god, his homely shed,
His Cretan darts, and dogs of Sparta bred.

Georg. iii. 339-345.—Warton’s Translation.

It is to be observed, that, although the Libyan shepherd according to Virgil’s description led a migratory life, conducting his sheep from place to place in search of pasture, yet the scale, upon which he carried on his operations, was widely different from that which has always characterized the nomadic tribes of Asia. The poet represents the Libyan shepherd as a solitary wanderer, bearing with him all his arms and implements, just as a Roman soldier (l. 346.) carried his military accoutrements. On the other hand, as we have seen, the Syrian or Arabian shepherd goes in a kind of state, with camels and horses to carry his wife and children, his tents, and the rest of his equipage; and he is followed by thousands, instead of hundreds or perhaps scores, of sheep and goats.

Let us now pursue the progress of this employment in another direction, viz. towards the north-west, and across the Euxine Sea and the straits connected with it into Europe.

Near the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea we meet with a very remarkable instance of the attention paid to the produce and manufacture of wool in a tribe called the Coraxi. Strabo alludes to the value of their fleeces in a passage which we shall produce in speaking of the wool of Spain, to which it more directly refers. At present we shall only consider the following evidence preserved by Joannes Tzetzes.

Τὸ παλαιὸν περὶ στρωμνὰς ἦν τῇ Μιλητῷ φήμη·
Ἔρια τὰ Μιλησία καλλίστα γὰρ τῶν πάντων,
Κᾂν ὦσι τῶν Κοραξικῶν φέροντα δευτερεῖα .

“Anciently Miletus was famed for carpets: for of all fleeces the Milesian were the most beautiful, although the Coraxic bore the second prize.”

Περὶ τῶν Μιλησιῶν ἔφαν πολλοὶ ἐρίων·
Περὶ ἐρίων Κοράξων ἐν πρωτῷ δὲ Ἰαμβῷ
Ἱππῶναξ οὗτως εἴρηκε, μέτρῳ χωλῶν Ἰάμβων,
Κωραξικὸν μὲν ἠμφιεσμένη λῶπος.

“Of the Milesian fleeces many have spoken: and to the Coraxic Hipponax has alluded in his Choliambic measure, where he mentions ‘a woman enveloped in a Coraxic shawl.’”

Hipponax, who is here cited by Tzetzes, was a satirical poet of Ephesus, and flourished about 540 B. C. In confirmation of his testimony it may be proved, that his countrymen and contemporaries had constant intercourse with a port in the vicinity of the Coraxi. We learn from Pliny (l. vi. cap. 5.), that the Coraxi were situated near Dioscurias, which, though deserted in his time, had been formerly so illustrious that 300 nations, speaking different languages, resorted to it. As we learn from other authorities, Dioscurias was a colony of Miletus and one of its chief settlements. Miletus also in the time of Hipponax had risen to the summit of its prosperity, and was the greatest commercial city in the world next to Tyre and Carthage. Its chief trade was towards the north and as far as the extremity of the Euxine Sea. Among the numerous Asiatic tribes, which were accustomed to bring their productions to Dioscurias and exchange them for Grecian merchandise, the Coraxi were, as we may conclude from the evidence now produced, a nation of superior enterprize and intelligence, who sent to the shores of the Ægean in the vessels of Miletus their fine wool, as well as the carpets and shawls, which they made from it.

If we had no more exact information than that which has been already cited, we might infer, that the Coraxi occupied part of the modern Circassia, a mountainous region admirably adapted to the breeding of sheep. The Circassians of the present day have numerous herds of cattle and vast flocks of sheep and goats. Their vallies are distinguished by beauty and fertility. A late traveller says, that from whatever country you enter Circassia, “you are at once agreeably impressed with the decided improvement in the appearance of the population, the agriculture, and the beauty of their flocks and herds.” With respect to Dioscurias, we are informed, that “the memory of its ancient name is still preserved in the present appellation of Iskouriah.” Sir John Chardin, who visited it and calls it Isgaour, commends its safety in summer as a road for ships, but says that it is a complete desert, where he could obtain no provisions, the traders who anchor there being obliged to construct temporary huts and booths of the boughs of trees for their accommodation, whilst awaiting the arrival of the natives of Mingrelia and Caucasus.

But, besides the general inference that the Coraxi occupied part of the modern Circassia, we are able to determine their abode with still greater precision, and even obtain some insight into their distinctive characters as a nation.

At the south-eastern extremity of Chirkess, or Circassia, on the northern declivity of Mount Elborus, and about the sources of the Kuban, the ancient Hypanis, we find a mountain clan, consisting of rather more than 250 families, which appears to retain not only the manners and habits, but even the very name of the Coraxi. Julius von Klaproth, to whom we are principally indebted for our knowledge of them, calls them the Caratshai. From him we learn the following particulars respecting their appearance, manners, and employments. They are among the most beautiful of the inhabitants of Caucasus, and more like the Georgians than the wandering Tartars of the Steppe. They are well formed, and have fine features, which are set off by large black eyes and a white skin. Their language resembles that of the Nogay-Tartars. They live in very neat houses, built of pine. Their children are strictly and well educated; and in general it may be said of them, that they are the most cultivated nation in Caucasus, surpassing all their neighbors in refinement of manners. They are very industrious, and subsist chiefly by agriculture. Their soil is productive, and, besides various kinds of grain, yields abundance of grass for pasture. The country around them is covered with woods, which abound with wild animals, such as bears, wolves, wild goats, hares, and wild cats, whose skins are much prized, and martins. Their dress is chiefly made of woollen cloth, which they weave themselves from the produce of their flocks, and which is admired throughout the whole of Caucasus. They sell their cloth, called by them Shal, their felt for carpeting, and their furs, partly to the Nogay-Tartars and Circassians, from whom they purchase articles of metal, and partly at Souchom-Kalé, a Turkish fort on the Black Sea, which contains shops and ware-houses, and carries on a considerable trade with the Western Caucasus. They receive here in return goods of cotton and silk, tobacco and tobacco-pipes, needles, thimbles, and otter-skins. While the men are employed out of doors, the women stay at home, make gold and silver thread, and sew the clothes of their fathers and brothers.

Such is the account given by a recent and most competent witness of the actual condition of this interesting nation, who, though now perhaps reduced in number, occupy probably after the lapse of 2500 years their original seat at the distance of from forty to eighty miles to the north-east of the same coast, to which they have always resorted for commercial purposes.

We cannot survey the now deserted Iscuria without observing, what a mournful contrast the Euxine presents under the sway of both Russia and Turkey to the useful energy, which more than 2000 years ago promoted life and the arts of life, and brought into close and peaceful contact the most refined and the most uncultivated nations, under the direction of the Ionians of Miletus. The beauty, the bravery, the activity, and the independence of a highland clan still represent the skill and enterprize of the ancient Coraxi; but the commerce, which rewarded their industry, and extended their reputation through the civilized world, has sunk into insignificance.

Besides the above notices of the Coraxi in Strabo and Tzetzes we find little said concerning the breeding of sheep in this part of Asia. Aristotle, however, mentions the sheep of “Pontus near Scythia,” and says that they were without horns. The Melanchlæni also, who are mentioned by Herodotus in his account of the Scythian tribes, and who lived to the north of the Coraxi, were so called, because they wore black palls.

There can be no doubt, that the use and management of sheep were known from the earliest times throughout nearly the whole of Asia Minor, and that some nations in this region had attained to a superiority in the art before the settlement in it of the Grecian colonists.

The imagery of the Homeric poems (supposed to be written about 900 B. C.) affords abundant evidence of these facts. They continually mention shepherds, who had the care of sheep, as well as goat-herds, who managed goats. They speak of the folds, in which the flocks were secured at night to preserve them from the attacks of wild beasts. The dangers to which the flocks were exposed from both wolves and lions, are in accordance with similar expressions and incidents in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, arising from the existence of the same ravenous and destructive quadrupeds in Palestine. Also, the language both of the Scriptures and of the Homeric poems is precisely the same, in which the king, ruling his people is compared to the shepherd tending his flock, or to the strong and large ram, which leads the sheep. It is to be observed, that the geographical knowledge expressed in the Homeric poems extended as far as the promontory of Carambis on the south coast of the Euxine Sea, and included all Phrygia, Ionia, and the western half of Asia Minor.

The Greek mythology affords similar evidence. The well-known story of Paris, adjudging the golden apple, is founded on the pastoral scenes of Ida. Marsyas also was a shepherd on mount Ida: the river Marsyas, famed for his contest with Apollo, was among the Phrygian mountains.

The historical evidence to which we now proceed, though referring to times much posterior to the mythological, is more exact as well as more entitled to absolute credit.

According to Strabo the branches of Mount Taurus in Pisidia were rich in pastures “for all kinds of cattle.” The chief town of this region was Selge, a very flourishing city, and hence Tertullian, in a passage, mentions “oves Selgicæ,” Selgic sheep, among those of the greatest celebrity. The superior whiteness of the fleeces of Pamphylia is mentioned by Philostratus.

We have reason to believe, that the Lydians and Carians bestowed the greatest attention on sheep-breeding and on the woollen manufacture before the arrival of the Greek colonists among them. The new settlers adopted the employments of the ancient inhabitants, and made those employments subservient to a very extensive and lucrative trade. Pliny (viii. 73. ed. Bip.) mentions the wool of Laodicea (See Appendix A.) in Caria; and Strabo (xii. c. 7. p. 578. Casaub.) observes, that the country about this city and Colossæ, which was not far from it, produced sheep highly valued on account of the fineness and the color of their fleeces.

Aristophanes mentions a pall, made of “Phrygian fleeces:” and Varro asserts, that in his time there were many flocks of wild sheep in Phrygia.

The passages above quoted from Strabo and Joannes Tzetzes allude to the very great celebrity of the wool of Miletus and of the articles woven from it.

The passages, which will now be produced from both Greek and Latin authors of various ages, conspire to prove the distinguished excellence of the wool of Miletus, although in many of them the epithet Milesian may be employed only in a proverbial acceptation to denote wool of the finest quality. The animals, which yielded this wool, must have been bred in the interior of Ionia not far from Miletus.

Ctesias describes the softness of camels’-hair by comparing it to Milesian fleeces. A woman in Aristophanes (Lysist. 732.) says, she must go home to spread her Milesian fleeces on the couch, because the worms were gnawing them. In a fragment of a Greek comedy, called Procris, of a somewhat later age (ap. Athen. l. xii. p. 553), a favorite lap-dog is described, lying on Milesian fleeces:

Οὐκοῦν ὑποστορεῖτε μαλακῶς τῷ κυνί·
Κάτω μὲν ὑποβαλεῖτε τῶν Μιλησίων
Ἐρίων.

Therefore make a soft bed for the dog: throw down for him Milesian fleeces.

The Sybarites wore shawls of Milesian wool. Palæphatus explains the fable of the Hesperides by saying, that their father Hesperus was a Milesian, and that they had beautiful sheep, such as those which were still kept at Miletus. Eustathius says, the “Milesian carpets” had become proverbial. Virgil represents the nymphs of Cyrene spinning Milesian fleeces, dyed of a deep sea-green color:

The nymphs, around her placed, their spindles ply,
And draw Milesian wool, of glassy dye.
Georg. iv. 334.

He also alludes to the high price of Milesian fleeces in the following passage:

Let rich Miletus vaunt her fleecy pride,
And weigh with gold her robes in purple dyed.
Georg. iii. 306.—Sotheby’s Translation.

The comment of Servius on the latter passage is as follows:

Milesian fleeces, most valuable wools; for Miletus is a city of Asia, where the best wools are dyed.

The ancient Greek version of Ezekiel (xxvii. 18.) enumerates Milesian fleeces among the articles of Tyrian importation.

Columella (vii. 2.) and Pliny (viii. 48.) assert the celebrity of the flocks of Miletus in former times, although in their time they were surpassed by the sheep of some other countries.

In soft Milesian wool as fine as possible.—Hippocrates, vol. i. p. 689. ed. Fœsii.

Ye are hairs of sheep, although Miletus may boast of you, and Italy be in high repute, and though the hairs be guarded under skins.—Clemens Alexandrinus, Pæd. ii. 30.

Lying on Milesian carpets.—Aristoph. Ranæ, l. 548.

Nor do I speak of the sheep of Miletus and Selge and Altinum, nor of those, for which Tarentum and Bætica are famous, and which are colored by nature.—Tertullian de Pallio, 3.

If, from the beginning the Milesians were occupied in shearing sheep, the Seres in spinning the produce of trees, the Tyrians in dyeing, the Phrygians in embroidering, and the Babylonians in weaving.—Tertullian de Habitu Muliebri.

We may now notice Samos, as being near the Ionic coast. Athenæus (xii. p. 540. D.) cites two ancient authors who assert that, when Polycrates was introducing into Samos the most excellent of the different breeds of animals, he chose the dogs of Laconia and Molossis, the goats of Scyros and Naxos, and the sheep of Miletus and Attica.

Respecting the breeding of sheep in Samos it may be proper to quote the remark of Ælian (Hist. Anim. xii. 40.), that the Samians gave some religious honor to this animal, because a consecrated utensil of gold, which had been stolen from one of their temples, was discovered by a sheep.

It appears probable, that the shepherd life was established in Thrace as early as in any part of Europe; for in the Homeric poems it is called “the mother of flocks” (Il. v. 222.). In a much later age the sheep of Thrace are mentioned by Nicander (Nicand. Ther. 50.). We learn from Plato (De Legibus, l. vii. p. 36. ed. Bekker) that in Thrace the flocks were entrusted to the care of the women, who were there compelled like slaves to work out of doors.

Aristotle speaks of the sheep of Magnesia, and says that they brought forth young twice a year.

A little further south we find sheep from the earliest times in Thessaly near the river Amphrysus. Here was Iton, which Homer also calls “the mother of flocks.” It was celebrated for a temple of Minerva, who was called from it Itonis, or Itonia, and whose worship was transferred from hence to Bœotia.

That Eubœa was famous for sheep we know from the testimony of two different authors cited by Athenæus. That of Callixenus Rhodius has been already produced; and that of Hermippus occurs in his metrical enumeration of the most excellent and characteristic productions of different countries.

Bœotia appears from very early times to have been rich in flocks. The tragic history of Œdipus supposes, that his father Laius, the king of Thebes, had flocks on Mount Cithæron. According to Sophocles (Œd. Tyr. 1026-1140.) Œdipus was delivered to one of the royal shepherds to be there exposed, and this shepherd through pity committed him to another, and thus saved his life. Seneca in his free version of Sophocles (Œd. Act. iv. v. 815-850.) has added a circumstance, as it appears, from the practice established in other cases. He says, that the shepherd of Laius, whom he calls Phorbas, had many others under him. But, although it may be doubted whether the flocks of Laius were so numerous as to require a head shepherd placed over many others, we learn that his possessions of this description excited contest and warfare among his descendants. Their countryman, Hesiod, represents them fighting at the gates of Thebes “for the flocks of Œdipus” (Op. et Dies, 163.), an expression, which must at least be understood to imply, that sheep constituted a principal part of the king’s wealth.

Among the Elgin marbles in the British Museum we have an interesting inscription relating to a contract made between the city of Orchomenos in Bœotia and Eubulus of Elatea in Phocis, according to which Eubulus was to have for four years the right of pasturage for 4 cows, 200 mares, 20 sheep, and 1000 goats. In the opinion of Professors Böckh and Ottfried Müller this inscription may be referred to the time of the Peloponnesian war. The supposed effect of the waters of the Melas and Cephisos on the fleeces of sheep is a testimony of a much later date, but proves that sheep, both black and white, were bred in that country. Varro (De Re Rust. ii. 2.) mentions the practice of covering sheep with skins in order to improve and preserve their fleeces. The Attic sheep, thus clothed with skins, are mentioned by Demosthenes under the name of “soft sheep.” The hilly part of Attica was of course particularly adapted for sheep as well as goats; and accordingly a letter of Alciphron (iii. 41.) describes flocks of them at Decelia near Mount Parnes about fifteen miles to the north of Athens. The fame of the Attic wool is also alluded to by Plutarch (De audiendo, p. 73. ed. Steph.), and by the Roman poet Laberius, who died in the year 43 B. C.

No matter whether in soft Attic wool,
Or in rough goats’-hair you be clothed.

We learn from Theocritus, that the shepherds of Acharnæ, one of the Attic demi, excelled in playing on the pipe.

In the adjoining country of Megaris was a temple of great antiquity in honor of Δήμητηρ Μαλοφόρος. It was said, that Ceres was worshipped under that title, The bringer of flocks, by those who first kept sheep in the country. Theognis (v. 55.) mentions, that the people of Megaris used before his time to wear goat-skins, which shows the late introduction of the growth and manufacture of wool. Here, as in Attica, it was usual to protect the sheep with skins; and, as the boys were sometimes seen naked after the Doric fashion, Diogenes, the cynic, said in reference to these practices, he would rather be the ram of a Megarensian than his son.

In the Peloponnesus, Arcadia was always remarkable for the attention paid to sheep.

Arcadia claims our especial consideration, because in it the shepherd life assumed that peculiar form, which has been the subject of so much admiration both in ancient and modern times. Here the lively genius and imaginative disposition common to the Greek nation were directed to the daily contemplation of the most beautiful and romantic varieties of mountain and woodland scenery, and hence their employments, their pleasures, and their religion, all acquired a rustic character, highly picturesque and tasteful, and, as it appears to us, generally favorable to the development of the domestic and social virtues. To attempt a full investigation of this subject, and to show in what degree the want of higher attainments in religious knowledge and moral cultivation was supplied by the peculiar rites, ideas, and customs of Arcadia, would lead us too far from our proper subject. We only wish to bring forward the principal facts and authorities, and to give a succint account of the genuine Arcadian system of religion and manners without attempting to refute at length the opposite views, which have been adopted by ancient and modern writers.

The peculiar Divinity of Arcadia, whose worship had a constant and manifest reference to the principal employments of the inhabitants, was Pan. Hence he is called by Virgil and Propertius “the God of Arcadia.” According to Herodotus (ii. 145.), Pan, the son of Mercury (who was born at Cyllene in Arcadia, where Mercury was previously worshipped,) first saw the light after the Trojan war, and about 800 years before his own time. Thus we are able to refer the supposed birth of Pan, and consequently the commencement of his worship to about the year 1260 B. C..

The circumstances of the birth of this divinity, with his habits and employments, are described as follows in the most ancient document which we have relating to him, viz. Homer’s Hymn to Pan. Mercury tended rough flocks at Cyllene in the service of a mortal man, being enamored of a beautiful nymph. In the course of time she bore him a son, having the feet of a goat, two horns upon his forehead, a long shaggy beard, and a bewitching smile. This was Pan, who became the god of the shepherds, and the companion of the mountain nymphs, penetrating through the densest thickets, and inhabiting the most wild, rough, and lofty summits of the sylvan Arcadia. There it is his business to destroy the wild beasts; and when, having returned from hunting, he drives his sheep into a cave, he plays upon his reeds a tune sweet as the song of any bird in spring. The nymphs, delighting in melody, listen to him when they go to the dark fountain, and the god sometimes appears among them, wearing on his back the hide of a lynx, which he has lately killed, and he joins with them in the choral song and dance upon a meadow variegated with the crocus and the hyacinth. He is beloved by Bacchus, and is the delight of his father Mercury, and he celebrates their worship beyond that of all the other gods.

Callimachus (Hymn. in Dianam, 88.) represents Pan at his fold in Arcadia, feeding his dogs with the flesh of a lynx, which he has caught on Mænalus. It is to be observed, that the care of dogs to guard the flock was an indispensable part of the pastoral office. Philostratus, in his Second Book of Pictures, supposes the nymphs to have been reproving Pan for his want of grace in dancing, telling him that he leapt too high and like a goat, and offering to teach him a more gentle method. He pays no attention to them, but tries to catch hold of them. Upon this they surprise him sleeping at noon after the toils of the chase; and he is represented in the picture with his arms tied behind him, and enraged and struggling against them, while they are cutting off his beard and trying to transform his legs and to humanize him.

In the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil we find frequent invocations to Pan as the god of shepherds, the guardian of flocks, and the inventor of the syrinx, or Pandean pipes.

Ipse, nemus linquens patrium, saltusque Lycæi,
Pan, ovium custos, tua si tibi Mænala curæ,
Adsis, O Tegeæe, favens.

Georg. i. 16-18.

God of the fleece, whom grateful shepherds love,
Oh, leave Lycæus and thy father’s grove;
And if thy Mænalus yet claim thy care,
Hear, Tegeæan Pan, th’ invoking prayer.

Georg. i. 16-18.

Delightful Mænalus, ‘mid echoing groves,
And vocal pines, still hears the shepherds’ loves;
The rural warblings hear of skilful Pan,
Who first to tune neglected reeds began.

Bucol. viii. 22-24.—Warton’s Translation.

O that you lov’d the fields and shady grots,
To dwell with me in bowers and lowly cots,
To drive the kids to fold, the stags to pierce;
Then shouldst thou emulate Pan’s skilful verse,
Warbling with me in woods: ’twas mighty Pan
To join with wax the various reeds began.
Pan, the great god of all our subject plains,
Protects and loves the cattle and the swains:
Nor thou disdain thy tender rosy lip
Deep to indent with such a master’s pipe.

Bucol. ii. 28-34.—Warton’s Translation.

Besides the four places in Arcadia, which are referred to in the above-cited passages of Virgil, Pausanias informs us of several others, in which he saw temples and altars erected to Pan. He says, that Mount Mænalus was especially sacred to this deity, so that those who dwelt in its vicinity asserted, that they sometimes heard him playing on the syrinx. A continual fire burnt there near his temple.

Herodotus gives a very curious account of the introduction of the worship of Pan into Attica. He says, that before the battle of Marathon the Athenian generals sent Philippides as a herald to Sparta. “On his return Philippides asserted, that Pan had appeared to him near Mount Parthenius above Tegea, had addressed him by name and with a loud voice, and commanded him to ask the Athenians why they did not pay any regard to him, a god, who was kind to them, who had been often useful to them and would be so in future. The Athenians, believing the statement of Philippides, when they found themselves prosperous, erected a temple to Pan below the Acropolis, and continued to propitiate him by annual sacrifices and by carrying the torch.” From various authorities we know, that this temple was in the cave on the northern side of the Acropolis below the Propylæa.

In later times a cave near Marathon was dedicated to Pan, the stalactitio incrustations within it being compared to goats, and to their stalls and drinking-troughs.

Chandler and Dodwell in their Travels describe another cave larger than that at Marathon and containing more varied stalagmitic concretions. It is near the summit of Mount Rapsāna between Athens and Sunium. ΠΑΝΟϹ is inscribed on the rock near the entrance, proving that it was considered sacred to Pan. It is no doubt the Panīon mentioned by Strabo.

The Corycian cave on Mount Parnassus was dedicated by the surrounding inhabitants to Pan and to the Nymphs. Theocritus also (Idyll. viii. v. 103.) speaks of Homole, a mountainous tract in the south of Thessaly, as belonging to Pan. Altars were dedicated to Pan on the race-course at Olympia in Elis, as we may presume, out of respect to the Arcadians, who resorted to the Olympic games. Pindar states, that he had near his door a statue of Pan. Here, as his able commentators Heyne and Böckh observe, his daughters with other Theban virgins sung hymns in honor of the god.

Time has spared the traces of hymns performed on such occasions, of which the following Scholion is the most entire specimen.

Ὦ Πάν, Ἀρκαδίας μέδων κλεεννᾶς,
ὀρχηστὰ βρομίαις ὀπαδὲ νύμφαις,
γελάσειας, ὦ Πὰν, ἐπ’ ἐμαῖς
εὐφροσύναις, ἀοιδαῖς κεχαρημένος.

O Pan, Arcadia’s sovereign lord,
Dancing and singing with the nymphs;
Smile, Pan, responsive to my joys,
O shout, delighted with my songs.

On a vase of Greek marble in the Royal Museum at Naples (This vase was first described in [Italian 275] Bayardi, Catalogo degli antichi monumenti dissottarretti da Ercolano. Napoli, 1754, p. 290. No. 914.), we see Pan dancing with the nymphs exactly as he is represented in the preceding song. The sculpture is in that very ancient style, which is called Etruscan. Pan is here exhibited with goats’ feet and horns (Hom. Hymn. in Pana, 1. 2.). He wears the skin of an animal, and employs his right hand in drawing it up towards his left shoulder. In his left hand he holds the crook or pastoral staff, which is one of his usual emblems. Pan and the three females, with whom he is dancing, form a distinct group by themselves. They are moving round a large stone, and the artist probably imagined them to be moving first in one direction, and then in the opposite, as if performing the Strophe and Antistrophe around an altar. We learn from Mr. Dodwell, that the modern Greeks in their circular dances hold each other with a handkerchief, and not by the hand.

That the Romans considered Pān and Faun to be the same, using the two names indiscriminately, the one as the Greek, the other as the Latin form, is evident from such passages as the following:

Pan from Arcadia’s hills descends
To visit oft my Sabine seat,
And here my tender goats defends
From rainy winds and summer’s heat.

For when the vales, wide-spreading round,
The sloping hills, and polish’d rocks,
With his harmonious pipe resound,
In fearless safety graze my flocks.

Hor. Od. l. i. c. 17. v. 1-12.

The names Pan and Faun, scarcely differ except in this, that the one begins with P, the lenis, and the other with F, which is its aspirate: in the second place, both were conceived to have not only the same form and appearance, but the same habits, dispositions, and employments: thirdly, the goat was sacrificed to Pan in Greece and to Faunus in Italy, because the Arcadian and Roman deity was conceived to be the guardian of goats as well as sheep, but this animal was not sacrificed to the Egyptian Mendes, because

In safety through the woody brake
The latent shrubs and thyme explore,
Nor longer dread the speckled snake,
And tremble at the wolf no more.

Francis’s Translation, abridged.

in Egypt the goat itself was supposed to be Mendes, an incarnation of the god; and lastly, it is recorded as an historical fact, that the worship of Faunus was brought to Rome from Arcadia, whereas the supposition of the introduction of the same worship into Arcadia from Egypt, though found in the pages of an historian, is not given by him as a matter of history, but only as a matter of opinion. The account of the origin of the worship of Faunus at Rome, is as follows: Evander, the Arcadian, introduced a colony of his countrymen into Italy, and established there the rights of Mercury and of the Lycean Pan on the hill, which was afterwards called the Palatine Mount and became part of the city of Rome. A cave at the base of the hill was dedicated to Pan, as we have seen was the case some centuries afterwards at Athens .

In the preceding observations we have endeavored to give a correct representation of the real sentiments and practices of the Arcadians in regard to the proper divinity of their country; and from this account we are naturally led to inquire what influence this peculiar belief and worship had upon their manners and their social life. Whilst the elegant simplicity and innocence of the Arcadian shepherds, their graceful chorusses, their dance and song, their love for their fleecy charge, which they delighted and soothed with the melody of the pipe, have been the theme and ornament of poetry and romance from the earliest times, the question is highly important and interesting, whether these ideal visions are realised by historical testimony? whether the shepherds of the ancient Arcadia were so entirely and so favorably distinguished from men of the same class and employment in almost all other times and countries? One modern writer denies this fact. He says, “The refined and almost spiritualized state of innocence, which we call the pastoral life of Arcadia, was entirely unknown to the ancients:” and he quotes in support of this assertion several expressions, used by Philostratus and other writers, and denoting contempt for the Arcadians as a rude, ignorant, stupid race of people. Polybius, who was an Arcadian, confidently asserts, that they had throughout Greece a high and honorable reputation, not only on account of their hospitality to strangers and their benevolence towards all men, but especially on account of their piety towards the divine being! It is true they make no figure in Grecian history, because they were too wise to take part in the irrational contests, which continually embroiled the surrounding states. Their division into small independent communities, each presenting a purely democratic constitution, rendered it impossible for them to acquire celebrity in legislation; and yet we are informed of some of the citizens of Arcadia, who were reputed excellent lawgivers for the sphere in which they acted. It appears to be no inconsiderable evidence of their progress in the art of government upon republican principles, that in the choice of magistrates at Mantinea they proceeded upon the plan of a double election. We have the most decisive proofs of their public spirit in the splendid cities, which they erected, and which were adorned with theatres, temples, and numerous other edifices. We are informed by Pausanias, that of all the temples in Peloponnesus the most beautiful and admirable were those of Minerva at Tegea and of Apollo at Phigalia; and these were both cities of Arcadia. Now it should be observed, that the taste and splendor of their public edifices are the more decisive proofs of their national enthusiasm, when it is considered, that among them property was exceedingly subdivided; that they had no overpowering aristocracy, no princes or great landed gentry, who might seek for renown or court popularity by bestowing their wealth upon public institutions; but that the noble temples, the sculptures, and other works of art, which ornamented their cities and were subservient to purposes of common interest, could have been produced only by the united deliberations and contributions of the mass of the inhabitants. They seem therefore to prove the universal prevalence both of a liberal patriotic feeling, and of a cultivated taste for the beautiful and the sublime.

Virgil bears his testimony to their superior skill in vocal and instrumental music.

Arcadian swains,
Ye best artificers of soothing strains.
Bucol. x. 32.—Warton’s Translation.

This must of course be understood as referring only to music and poetry of the pastoral kind. To the composition of the higher species of poetry, by which the Greeks of other countries laid a foundation for the instruction and delight of all succeeding ages, the Arcadians never aspired. At the same time there can be no doubt that they bestowed great care upon the exhibition of dramatic compositions, though they did not attempt to write them: of this fact we have sufficient proof in the remains of the theatres found upon the sites of their principal cities, and especially of the theatre of Megalopolis, which was the greatest in all Greece.

But with respect to their cultivation of music and its influence on their national character, we have upon record the full and explicit testimony of one of their most distinguished citizens, the historian Polybius, whose remarks will appear especially deserving of the reader’s attention, when it is considered, that he must himself have gone through the whole course of discipline and instruction which he describes. Having had occasion to mention the turbulent character as well as the cruel and perfidious conduct of the Cynætheans, who occupied a city and district in the north of Arcadia, he proposes to inquire why it was that, although they were indeed Arcadians, they had acted in a manner so entirely at variance with the usual habits and manners of the Greeks, and he then proceeds with earnestness and solemnity to explain upon the following principles the cause of this extraordinary contrast. It was, as he states, that the Cynætheans were the only inhabitants of Arcadia who had neglected to exercise themselves in music; and he then gives the following account of the established practice of the rest of the Arcadians in devoting themselves to the study of real music, by which he means the united arts of music, poetry, and dancing, of all those elegant and graceful performances, over which the Muses were supposed to preside. He informs us that the Arcadians, whose general habits were very severe, were required by law to go on improving themselves in music, so understood, until their thirtieth year. “In childhood,” says he, “they are taught to sing in tune hymns and pæans in honor of the domestic heroes and divinities. They afterwards learn the music of Philoxenus and Timotheus. They dance to the pipe in the theatres at the annual festival of Bacchus; and they do this with great emulation, the boys performing mock-fights adapted to their age, and the young men the so-called manly fights. In like manner throughout the whole of life their pleasure at feasts and entertainments consists, not in listening to singers hired for the purpose, but in singing themselves in their turns when called upon. For, although a man may decline any other performance on the ground of inability and may thereby bring no imputation on himself, no one can refuse to sing, because all have been obliged to learn it, and to refuse to take a part, when able, is deemed disgraceful. The young men also unite together to perform in order all the military steps and motions to the sound of the pipe, and at the public expense they exhibit them every year before their fellow-citizens. Besides these ballets, marches, and mock-fights, the men and women unite in great public assemblies and in numerous sacrifices, to which are to be added the circular or choral dances by the boys and virgins.” Polybius adds, that these musical exercises had been ordained as the means of communicating softness and refinement to the otherwise rough and laborious life of the Arcadians, and he warns them by the example of the half-savages of Cynæthæ never to abandon such wholesome institutions. With how great benefit to our own social character might we adopt this counsel! How greatly might we contribute both to the innocent enjoyment and to the more improved and elevated tastes of our rustics and artisans, if well-regulated plans were devised, by which graceful recreations, providing at the same time exercise for the body, amusement for the imagination, and employment for the finer and more amiable feelings, were made to relieve the degrading and benumbing monotony of their protracted labors, whether in the factory or in the field!

It will be readily perceived, that the education here described, and the tastes and habits which it produced, were immediately associated with the popular religion, and especially with the notions and rites entertained towards the peculiar god of the shepherds. Other deities indeed, such as Apollo, Diana, and Minerva, who were also worshipped in Arcadia, may have contributed to the same effect; and especially this may have been the case with Mercury, perhaps the only one of the higher Greek divinities, who was conceived to have a benevolent character, who was the father of Pan, and was himself reported to have been born in a cave of the same mountain in Arcadia, on which he was worshipped. He was a lover of instrumental music, having invented the lyre, and he was frequently represented on coins and gems, riding upon a ram, or with his emblems so connected with the figures of sheep, and more rarely of goats and of dogs, as to prove that in his character as the god of gain the shepherds looked up to him together with his offspring to bless the flocks and to increase their produce. Hence Homer, in order to convey the idea that Phorbas was remarkably successful in the breeding of sheep, says that he was beloved by Mercury above all the other Trojans. The inhabitants of one territory even in Arcadia, viz. the city of Phineos, honored Mercury more than all the other gods, and expressed this sentiment by procuring a statue of him made by a celebrated sculptor in Ægina, in which he was represented carrying a ram under his arm, and which they placed in the great temple of Jupiter at Olympia. At Corinth there was a brazen statue of Mercury in a sitting posture with a ram standing beside him. According to Pausanias (ii. 3, 4.) the reason of this representation was, that of all the gods Mercury was thought most to take care of flocks and to promote their increase. But, as the Corinthians had little or nothing to do with the tending of sheep and were devoted to commerce, we may ask what interest had they in this attribute of Mercury? It is very evident that it could only be an interest arising from the part which Corinth took in the wool-trade. That the Arcadians did not themselves consume their wool is manifest. How could they have built cities, which were so large, numerous, and handsome in proportion to the extent of their country, and have lived even in that degree of elegance and luxury, to which they attained, unless they had been able to dispose of the chief produce of their soil in a profitable manner? It is probable therefore, that the representation of Mercury or of his emblems in conjunction with the figure of the sheep on the coins of Corinth and Patræ may be regarded as an intimation, that the Arcadians disposed of their wool in those cities for exportation to foreign countries.

But, notwithstanding the important share, which Mercury had in the religious sentiments and observances of the Arcadians, the proper god of the shepherds of Arcadia was Pan, and we have already had abundant evidence to suggest the conviction, that their songs and dances were performed principally in honor of him, and were supposed to be taught, guided, and animated by him.

Arcadia has for many centuries exhibited a most melancholy contrast to that condition of hardy and yet peaceful independence, of rustic simplicity united with tasteful elegance, of social kindness and domestic enjoyment undisturbed by the projects of ambition, which has supplied many of the most beautiful pictures to the writers of poetry and romance. The great natural features of the country are unalterable. The pine-forests of Lycæus, its deep glens continually refreshed with sparkling streams and cataracts, its savage precipices where scarce even a goat can climb, remain in their original beauty and grandeur. This region also affords pasture to flocks of sheep more numerous than those which feed in any other part of Greece. But whatever depends on the moral nature of man is changed. The valleys, once richly cultivated and tenanted by an overflowing population, are scarcely kept in tillage. The noble cities are traced only by their scattered ruins. The few descendants of the ancient Arcades have crouched beneath a degrading tyranny. The thick forests and awful caverns but a few years ago served to shelter fierce banditti; and the traveller startled at the sound of their fire-arms instead of being charmed with the sweet melody of the syrinx. But a new dynasty has been established under the sanction of the most powerful and enlightened nations of Europe. It remains to be seen whether this or any other part of Greece will again become wise, virtuous, and renowned. The philanthropist, who amidst the gloom and desolation of the moral world depends with confidence upon an all-wise and all-disposing Providence, may console himself with the hope, that that great Being who bestowed such inestimable blessings upon Arcadian shepherds in their ignorance, will not abandon those of their descendants, who with superior means of knowledge, aim at corresponding attainments in the excellencies of political, social, and private life.

According to the representation in the Odyssey (xiv. 100.) Ulysses had twelve flocks of sheep, and as many of goats on the continent opposite to Ithaca. At a much later period Neoptolemus, a king of Molossis, in possession of flocks and herds, which were superintended by a distinct officer appointed for the purpose. In Macedonia also the king, though living in a state of so little refinement that his queen baked the bread for the whole household, was possessed at an early period of flocks of sheep and goats together with horses and herds of oxen, which were entrusted to the care of separate officers. We are informed that three Argive brothers, having taken refuge in the upper part of Macedonia bordering upon Illyria, became hired servants to the king, one of them having the custody of the horses, another of the oxen, and a third of the sheep and goats. Here then we find in Europe a state of society analogous to that which, as we have seen, existed in Palestine under David. Indeed we may observe, that all the countries bordering on Macedonia were contrasted with Attica and Arcadia in this respect, that, while the Athenians and Arcadians were in general small landed proprietors, each shepherd tending his flock upon his own ground, Phrygia, Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and even Bœotia belonged probably to an aristocracy, the richest and most powerful individuals of which became shepherd kings, their landed possessions giving them a superiority over the rest of their countrymen, and leading to the employment of numerous persons as their servants engaged in tending their cattle and in other rural occupations.

Respecting the attention paid to sheep-breeding in Epirus we have the testimony of Varro in his treatise De Re Rustica. He informs us (ii. 2.) that it was usual there to have one man to take care of 100 coarse-wooled sheep (oves hirtæ), and two men for the same number of “oves pellitæ,” or sheep which wore skins. The attention bestowed upon dogs is an indirect evidence of the care which was devoted to flocks. It is worthy of remark, that the dogs used to guard the flocks in the modern Albania, appear to be the genuine descendants of the ancient “canes Molossici,” being distinguished by their size as well as by their strength and ferocity. Further notices respecting them may be found in Virgil’s Georgics, l. iii. 404-413, and in the Notes of his editors and translators, Heyne, Martyn, and J. H. Voss. See also Ælian de Nat. An. iii. 2. and Plautus, Capt. l. i. 18.

There is another important circumstance, in which probably the habits of the modern shepherds of Albania are similar to those of the ancient occupants of the same region, viz. the annual practice of resorting to the high grounds in summer and returning to the plains in winter, which prevails both here and in most mountainous countries devoted to sheep-breeding. The following extract from Dr. Holland’s Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, &c. (p. 91-93.), gives a lively representation of this proceeding:

“When advanced eight or nine miles on our journey (from Cinque Pozzi to Joannina; October 31st, 1813,) and crossing another ridge of high and broken land, we were highly interested in a spectacle, which by a fortunate incident occurred to our notice. We met on the road a community of migrating shepherds, a wandering people of the mountains of Albania, who in the summer feed their flocks in these hilly regions, and in the winter spread them over the plains in the vicinity of the Gulph of Arta and along other parts of the coast. The many large flocks of sheep we had met the day before belonged to these people, and were preceding them to the plains. The cavalcade we now passed through was nearly two miles in length with few interruptions. The number of horses with the emigrants might exceed a thousand; they were chiefly employed in carrying the moveable habitations and the various goods of the community, which were packed with remarkable neatness and uniformity. The infants and smaller children were variously attached to the luggage, while the men, women, and elder children travelled for the most part on foot; a healthy and masculine race of people, but strongly marked by the wild and uncouth exterior connected with their manner of life. The greater part of the men were clad in coarse white woollen garments; the females in the same material, but more curiously colored, and generally with some ornamented lacing about the breast.” He then adds, “These migratory tribes of shepherds generally come down from the mountains about the latter end of October, and return thither from the plains in April, after disposing of a certain proportion of their sheep and horses. In travelling, they pass the night on the plains or open lands. Arrived at the place of their destination, they construct their little huts or tents of the materials they carry with them, assisted by the stones, straw, or earth, which they find on the spot.”

According to Dr. Sibthorp (in Walpole’s Memoirs, p. 141.), “a wandering tribe of Nomads” on the other side of Greece drive their flocks from the mountains of Thessaly into the plains of Attica and Bœotia to pass the winter. “They give some pecuniary consideration to the Pasha of Negropont and Vaivode of Athens. These people are much famed for their woollen manufactures, particularly the coats or cloaks worn by the Greek sailors.”

Chapter II. Sheep-Breeding and Pastoral Life of the Ancients—Illustrations of the Scriptures, &c.

Sheep-breeding in Sicily—Bucolic poetry—Sheep-breeding in South Italy—Annual migration of the flocks—The ram employed to aid the shepherd in conducting his flock—The ram an emblem of authority—Bells—Ancient inscription at Sepino—Use of music by ancient shepherds—Superior quality of Tarentine sheep—Testimony of Columella—Distinction of the coarse and soft kinds—Names given to sheep—Supposed effect of the water of rivers on wool—Sheep-breeding in South Italy, Tarentum, and Apulia—Brown and red wool—Sheep-breeding in North Italy—Wool of Parma, Modena, Mantua, and Padua—Origin of sheep-breeding in Italy—Faunus the same with Pan—Ancient sculptures exhibiting Faunus—Bales of wool and the shepherd’s dress—Costume, appearance, and manner of life of the ancient Italian shepherds.

Still shall o’er all prevail the shepherd’s stores,
For numerous uses known; none yield such warmth,
Such beauteous hues receive, so long endure;
So pliant to the loom, so various, none.—Dyer.

We now pass over to Sicily. The pastoral life of the Sicilians was marked by peculiar characters as well as that of the Arcadians. The bucolic poems of Theocritus represent many of its circumstances in the most lively colors; and, while their dramatic spirit and vivacity are unrivalled, they seem to be most exact copies of nature, the dialogues which they contain being in the style, the language, and the precise dialect of the Sicilian shepherds, and indeed only differing from their real conversation by being composed in hexameters. It is to be observed, that the mountains and pastures of Sicily were browsed by goats and oxen as well as by sheep. These animals were, however, under distinct keepers, called respectively Shepherds, Goatherds, and Herdsmen. But the tastes, manner of life, and the superstitions of these three classes of rustics appear to have been undistinguishable. They were probably not always independent proprietors of the soil, but in many cases the servants of a landed aristocracy who lived in Syracuse and other splendid cities. They appear, however, to have enjoyed far greater comforts and advantages than the corresponding class of hired laborers in the countries to the north of the Peloponnesus and of Attica. In composing pastoral verses and in playing on the pipe and the syrinx they probably equalled the Arcadians. Whilst they were watching their flocks and herds, it was a frequent amusement with them for two persons to contend for a stipulated prize, such as a goat, a carved wooden bowl, or a syrinx, which was to be awarded by an appointed judge to him who most excelled either in instrumental music, or in singing alternate and extemporaneous verses.

That this elegant recreation was of Sicilian origin we have clear and abundant evidence. Bion (Idyll vii. 1.) calls pastoral poetry “a Sicilian strain;” which certainly implies, that of all places where the Greek language was used Sicily was the most noted for it, and that in fact it properly belonged to Sicily. So Moschus (Idyll iii.) speaks of “the Sicilian muses;” and throughout this Idyll, which is the lament of Moschus on the death of Bion, he repeatedly speaks of the pastoral poetry, such as Bion cultivated, as proper to Sicily. In Virgil’s Bucolics we find frequent allusions to the same acknowledged fact. Thus he says,

“I will set my verses to the tune of a Sicilian shepherd.”

Buc. x. 51.

The historian Diodorus, himself a Sicilian, who lived about the commencement of the Christian æra, supposes bucolic poetry and music to be the peculiar invention and exercise of his own country, and says, that it continued in use at his time and was held in the same estimation as formerly. In less than 200 years from this period the art lost much of its original simplicity. Maximus Tyrius (Diss. xxi.) says, that “the Dorians of Sicily became, to use the mildest term, more weak in understanding,” (more dissolute) “when instead of the simple Alpine music, which they used to employ in the presence of their flocks and herds, they began to love the tunes of the Sybarites, and a style of dancing adapted to them, such as was required by the Ionic pipe.”

But, although the rustic Dorians of Sicily had the full credit of this invention and were never surpassed in the practice of it by any other people, yet the imitation of it was attempted in various instances by the pastoral inhabitants of other countries. More especially, it appears to have been adopted in the neighboring district of Magna Græcia; for it is near Sybaris that Theocritus has placed the scene of his Fifth Idyll, in which, a shepherd having staked a lamb and a goatherd a kid, they contend in alternate verses, whilst a wood-cutter, whom they have called from his labor, listens as judge, and awards the prize to the goatherd, who hereupon joyfully sacrifices his newly acquired lamb to the Nymphs.

In the Seventh Idyll (v. 12, 27, 40.) Theocritus mentions the goatherd, Lycidas of Crete, who was his contemporary, and also his predecessors and supposed instructors, Asclepiades of Samos, and Philetas of Cos, as distinguished for skill in pastoral music.

The bucolic poems of Theocritus prove, that the Arcadian belief in the attributes of Pan had extended itself into Sicily and the South of Italy, so that the rustics of those countries not only invoked him by name, but even sometimes offered sacrifices to him. Thus, in Idyll v. 58, the Lucanian goatherd already referred to says, that he will set aside for Pan eight dishes of milk and six of honey.

But besides importing the belief in Pan from Arcadia the Sicilians recognized two demigods of native origin, who contributed, if not to excite feelings allied to religion, at least to amuse their imagination and to contribute greatly to the variety and liveliness of their poetry. These were the shepherd Polyphemus, who was horridly deformed, and the herdsman Daphnis, who was endowed with the most surpassing beauty.

Polyphemus was the son of Neptune. Notwithstanding his forbidden aspect he is represented as susceptible of some tender emotions, and it is his misfortune to be deeply enamored of the beautiful Nereid or Mermaid Galatea, whom he sees sporting in the green waves, while he surveys the coast from the summit of a mountain and plays upon the syrinx for the amusement of himself and his flock.

The Sicilian Daphnis, like the Arcadian Pan, was the son of Mercury and of a mountain nymph, and excelled in playing on the syrinx; but his form was entirely human and the most beautiful that could be imagined.

The guardian of fair kine, himself more fair.

Virg. Buc. v. 44.

He tended his cattle upon the picturesque Heræan mountains to the north of Ætna, and did not mix in the society of men. At the time when the beard was beginning to grow on his upper lip, the nymph Echenais became enamored of him, and enjoined him upon pain of losing his eye-sight not to approach any other female. He consented, and for some time persisted in obeying her; but at length a Sicilian princess, having intoxicated him with wine, accomplished her purpose. He shared the fate of Thamyras, the Thracian, and was thus punished for his folly. He then pined away, and died of hopeless love for the nymph, whom he had offended. According to Virgil (Buc. v. 56-71.) he was raised to the stars, and sacrifices were offered to him by the shepherds.

Daphnis was the frequent subject of pastoral poetry, being regarded as an ideal representation of the perfection of the shepherd’s culture and manner of life. Of this we have a proof in the epigram of Callimachus on the death of Astacides, and which concludes thus: “We (shepherds) will no longer sing of Daphnis, but of Astacides.” The poet’s design was to extol Astacides, by comparing him with Daphnis. According to Ælian (l. c.) the first bucolic poems related to the blindness of Daphnis and its cause; and the first poet, who composed verses upon this subject, was Stesichorus of Himera in Sicily. In Theocritus the allusions to the beautiful story of Daphnis are very frequent, and his sad fate is described at length by contending shepherds or goatherds in the First and Seventh Idylls. We shall quote only his dying words, where he calls on Pan to leave the great Mænalus and the long ridges of Lycæus, and to come to Sicily in order to receive from his own hand the syrinx, on which he had been accustomed to play.

Ἔνθ’ ᾦναξ, καὶ τάνδε φέρ’ εὐπάκτοιο μελίπνουν
Ἐκ κηρῶ σύριγγα καλὰν, περὶ χεῖλος ἑλικτάν·
Ἠ γὰρ ἐγὼν ὑπ’ ἔρωτος ἐς ἅδᾶν ἕλκομαι ἤδη.

Come, mighty king, come, Pan, and take my pipe,
Well join’d with wax and fitted to my lip;
For now ’tis useless grown, Love stops my breath,
I cannot pipe, but must be mute in death.

Creech’s Translation.

Pliny informs us, that in his time the wool of Apulia was in the highest repute; that throughout the South of Italy the best sheep were bred in the vicinity of Tarentum and Canusium; and that the wool of Tarentum was admired for its tinge of black, and that of Canusium for its fine brown or yellow color.

The directions for the management of sheep, given by Varro, Columella, Virgil, and other writers on rural affairs, all tend to show the pains taken by the Romans to improve the breed of sheep, and especially to produce wool of the finest quality.

The first of these authors (De Re Rustica, L. ii. Præf.) mentions his own flocks of sheep in Apulia. It appears from his account that every man was obliged to report the number of his sheep to the publican and to have them inscribed in a register, the earliest allusion, to a code of laws, which may probably have been in some respects similar to that now called “La Mesta” in Spain. Varro further speaks expressly of the summer and winter migrations of the flocks; and to show the great distances to which they were conducted on these occasions, he states that the sheep of Apulia were taken every year to pass the summer in the mountains of Samnium, and sometimes even in those of Reate.

Of the nature and circumstances of these annual migrations we are enabled to form some judgment, not only from the animated description already quoted from Dr. Holland in relation to Albania, but still more distinctly from the following accounts by the Honorable Keppel Craven, one of which relates to the first group of mountains mentioned by Varro, the other to the second.

In the year 1818 Mr. Craven visited a large farm a few miles to the south of Foggia, and consequently not far from the site of the ancient Arpi in Apulia. He mentions the following particulars.

“Above 200 persons were employed, and resided on the spot. The stock of sheep consisted of 8000, divided into several flocks; to which those of cows, goats, and buffaloes, together with a set of brood mares and a suitable quantity of poultry, bore an equivalent proportion. All the cattle are guarded by large milk-white dogs of the Abruzzo breed. These animals are very handsome and resemble the Newfoundland species, but have sharper noses; they are very intelligent and equally fierce. The flocks are tended by natives of Abruzzo, who also undertake the care of milking them, as well as making the cheese, &c.; they are assisted by their wives and children, who accompany them in their yearly migrations to and from the mountains. These shepherds are clothed in the skins of the animals which they watch, and are reckoned a quiet, attentive, frugal, and trust-worthy race.” Tour through the southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, by the Honorable Keppel Craven, p. 80.

The scene of the following extract is the valley of the Aternus, descending from the region of the highest Apennines, the “montes Reatini” of Varro, not very remote from the ruins of his farm and villa, (These ruins are described at page 45 of the volume from which this passage is extracted.), and proceeding towards the sites of the modern Aquila and of the ancient Amiternum.

“One of the broad tratturos, or cattle-paths, runs in the same line with the high-road to Aquila; and I was so fortunate as to see it occupied by a very extended line of flocks, which slowly passed by the carriage for the space of a mile or more. The word ‘fortunate’ adapted to such a spectacle, may excite a smile in my readers; but I own that I never beheld one of these numerous animal congregations plodding across the flats of Capitanata, or the valleys of Abruzzo, as far as the eye could reach, without experiencing a sensation of a novel and exciting kind, nearly allied to that of enjoyment, but which I shall not attempt to account for.

“One shepherd heads each division of cattle, of which he has the peculiar care and direction. Armed with his crook, he walks some paces in advance of his flock, followed by an old ram termed il manso; which word, meaning tame or instructed, has undoubtedly a more apposite signification than that of our bell-wether, though he is, as well as ours, furnished with a large deep-toned bell.

“The sheep march in files of about twelve in each; and every battalion, if I may so call it, is attended by six or eight dogs, according to its number; these accompanying the herd, walking at the head, middle, and rear of each flank. The beauty and docility of these animals, which are usually white, has often been described, and their demeanor is gentle as long as the objects of their solicitude are unmolested, but at night they are so savage, that it would be dangerous to approach the fold they guard.

“The goats, which bear a very small proportion to the sheep, and are in general black, wind up the array, and evince their superior intelligence by lying down whenever a temporary halt takes place. The cows and mares travel in separate bodies. A certain number of these flocks, commonly those belonging to the same proprietor, are under the immediate management and inspection of an agent, entitled fattore, who accompanies them on horseback, armed with a musket, and better clad than the shepherds, who, both in summer and winter, wear the large sheep-skin jacket, and are in other respects provided with substantial though homely attire, including good strong shoes.

“These Fattores are all natives of Abruzzo, an Apulian never having been known to undertake the profession: the former, through particular habits and the repeated experience of years, are looked upon as so peculiarly fitted for the care required by cattle, and indeed animals of all kinds, that all the helpers in the stables of the capital are natives of these provinces, or of the adjoining county of Molise. In addition to these qualifications, they are esteemed an abstemious and honest race.

“When following the calling of shepherds, and occupied, as I saw them, in the duties of their charge in travelling, their countenances are almost invariably marked by the same expression, which combines mildness and sagacity with immovable gravity, and, it is painful to add, a look of deep-seated sadness; the whole caravan, animal as well as human, exhibiting, at least while engaged in one of those tedious peregrinations, a general appearance of suffering and depression, distinguishable in every individual that composes it. The shepherd that opens the march, the independent manso jingling his brazen bell, the flocks that follow, the dogs that watch over their security, and even the Fattore who directs the procession, all appear to be plodding through a wearisome existence of monotony and toil. The extreme slowness of their progress, the downcast expression of every head and eye, and, above all, the indications of exhaustion and fatigue which are but too perceptible after a journey of more than a month’s duration, may well account for this impression.

“The animals suffer greatly from heat until they reach their summer dwelling, and full as much from lameness, which, when it has reached a certain pitch, becomes the signal for destruction. I saw a mule bearing no other load than the skins of those that had perished in this manner.

“Several other beasts of burden follow the rear of the herds, laden with the various articles necessary for them and their guardians during their protracted march: these consist in the nets and poles requisite to pen the folds at night, the coarse cloth tents for the use of the shepherds, and a limited stock of utensils for milking, and boiling the produce of the flock. Among these are to be noticed some portable jointed seats of very ingenious though simple construction, composed of the stems of the giant fennel, a substance remarkable for its light and compact texture.

“The cattle which I thus met near Aquila were within two days’ journey of their resting-place, which is generally in some of the valleys placed on the lower flanks of the mountain ridges, but sufficiently elevated above the larger plains to afford fresh and abundant herbage and a cooler temperature.

“The duration of their abode in these regions is regulated by the rapid or slow progression of the summer season; in the course of which they shift their quarters, as the heat increases, till they reach the highest spots, which are the last divested of the deep snows, in which they have been buried during three quarters of the year. Here large tracts of the finest pasture, rills of the coldest and purest water, and shady woods of considerable extension, are occupied by them during the remainder of the fine weather, and afford the ne plus ultra of enjoyment allotted to an existence of such restricted variety.” Excursions in the Abruzzi by the Honorable Keppel Craven. London, 1838, vol. i. p. 259-264.

The account, given in the second paragraph of this extract, of the shepherd marching at the head of his battalion of sheep illustrates in a striking manner the remark made respecting the comparison of kings to shepherds, and to their leading rams in Homer and in the Scriptures.

The Greek word Κτίλος, originally an adjective, corresponds exactly to the Italian manso. It appears to have been applicable to all trained tame animals. Hence it was used specially to denote the large and powerful ram, which was instructed to assist the shepherd in disposing the sheep in proper order and in leading them to and from their daily pasture as well as during their long migrations. In the third book of the Iliad (l. 196-198), where Priam is described surveying the Greek troops from the Scæan gate, after the account of Agamemnon, who was considered as their shepherd, we find Ulysses, who was inferior to him both in rank and in stature, represented as his manso, that is, as the ram, which immediately follows the shepherd and aids him in conducting the flock. The same image is repeated in the thirteenth book (l. 492, 493), where Pope’s translation, though very paraphrastic, is an admirable representation of the real circumstances.

In order follow all th’ embodied train,
Like Ida’s flocks proceeding o’er the plain:
Before his fleecy care, erect and bold,
Stalks the proud ram, the father of the fold;
With joy the swain surveys them, as he leads
To the cool fountains, through the well-known meads.

Propertius presents us with a similar picture in the following lines:

Corniger Idæi vacuam pastoris in aulam
Dux aries saturas ipse reduxit oves.

Lib. iii. El. 13.

The fold receives the sheep on Ida fed,
By the great ram, their horned chieftain, led.

Aristotle calls these rams “the leaders of the sheep,” and he states, that the shepherds provided for each flock such a leader, which, when called by name by the shepherd, placed himself at the head of the flock, and was trained to execute this office from an early age. The employment of the manso was probably the ground, on which many of the Orientals adopted the ram as the emblem of military authority. According to this supposition it would rather denote secondary than supreme command; and if so, the representation of the king of Persia by the symbol of a ram in the 8th chapter of Daniel is the more expressive, because it indicated that he was the agent of the supreme Deity. Probably also the same sentiment was intended to be conveyed by the enthusiastic Sapor, or Shahpoor II., King of Persia in the fourth century, when he rode to battle in front of his army wearing instead of a diadem a ram’s head wrought in gold and studded with precious stones.

Any one, who has seen the collection of ancient bronze bells in the Museum at Naples, and compared them with those now worn in Italy about the necks of sheep and other cattle, will be struck with their similarity. We know also from various ancient laws and other evidence that the shepherds fastened bells upon their sheep as they do at the present day.

There is a striking correspondence between the words of Varro, “crates, retia, cæteraque utensilia,” and Craven’s account of the provision of nets, &c. for making folds, and of the other necessary utensils.

At Sepino, the ancient Sæpinum, situated in the highest part of the mountains of Samnium near the source of the Tamarus, Mr. Craven saw over the Eastern gate the remains of a very remarkable inscription referring to the same practice. This inscription has been accurately published by Muratori. It clearly distinguishes between the “fattores” (conductores gregum oviaricorum) and the shepherds who were under them (pastores quos conductores habent). These were molested by the magistrates of Sæpinum and the neighboring town of Bovianum, and by the “stationarii” or soldiers, who, instead of being ready to protect them in case of need, charged them with being fugitives and with cattle-stealing, and under this pretence drove back even those sheep which belonged to the emperor (oves quoque dominicas) and thus greatly injured his revenue. These grievances were consequently represented to an officer at Rome who kept the emperor’s accounts (Cosmus, Augusti Libertus a Rationibus); and he writes in the terms of the inscription to Basseus Rufus and Macrinus Vindex, officers of rank in the army, in order that the evil might be remedied. This inscription must have been erected about the commencement of the Christian æra. As Mr. Craven remarks, “It not only corroborates what was already known, that the periodical migration of the herds from Apulia is of most ancient origin, but it proves, that they observed the same line of route which they follow to the present day; the road, that runs from the east to the western gate of this inclosure, falling into the line of the tratturos, or sheep-paths, exclusively allotted to the use of the flocks in their annual journeys.”

Whilst we discover these numerous points of resemblance between the ancient and the modern practice, it is probable that in other respects there was a greater diversity. If the author whose observations have been cited had witnessed a similar procession in very ancient times, he would have seen less reason to deplore its toilsome and melancholy aspect. Music was then probably of no little service in animating both the shepherds and their flocks. The sonorous bagpipe may have contributed to this effect. At least Mr. Craven’s account of a modern pastoral march is strikingly contrasted with the following description by Apollonius Rhodius, in which he compares the ship Argo and the music of Orpheus, followed by multitudes of fishes, to a shepherd playing on the syrinx and followed by his sheep.

Ὡς δ’ ὁπότ’ ἀγραύλοιο κατ’ ἴχνια σημαντῆρος
μυρία μῆλ’ ἐφέπονται ἄδην κεκορημένα ποίης
εἰς αὖλιν, ὁ δέ τ’ εἶσι πάρος σύριγγι λιγείῃ
καλὰ μελιζόμενος νόμιον μέλος· ὥς ἄρα τοί γε
ὡμάρτευν· πὴν δ’ αἰὲν ἐπασσύτερος φέρεν οὖρος.
Argon, L. i. 575-579.

As sheep in flocks thick-pasturing on the plain
Attend the footsteps of the shepherd-swain,
His well-known call they hear, and fully fed,
Pace slowly on, their leader at their head;
Who pipes melodious, as he moves along,
On sprightly reeds his modulated song:
Thus charm’d with tuneful sounds the scaly train
Pursued the flying vessel o’er the main.
Fawkes’s Translation.

The testimony afforded by Varro relative to the management of the South Italian sheep, having been given and illustrated, it is to be deplored that Italy, once so renowned for its sheep, can now boast little of this production of her bounteous clime. The Romans, whose dress was woollen, cultivated in an especial degree the fineness of the fleece; and it was not until the days of the Empire that the silk and cotton of the East began to supersede the ancient raiment of the Roman people. The finest wools of ancient Italy were produced in Apulia and Calabria, being the eastern parts of the present kingdom of Naples.

We now proceed to the other writers on Rural Affairs, viz., Columella and Palladius.

The first attests the high estimation in which the sheep of Calabria and Apulia were held by the Romans, especially before his own time, and he says that among them the Tarentine sheep were the best of all. In speaking of the practice so prevalent in this district of covering them with skins, he shows, that these “oves pellitæ” were also called “soft” (molles), and “covered” (tectæ). Indeed he makes the great distinction of sheep to be into the “genus molle,” i. e. the soft kind, and the “genus hirsutum,” or “hirtum,” i. e. the coarse kind. We further learn that the soft sheep were called by the Romans Greek sheep, because they were bred in Græcia Magna, and Tarentine, because the best of all were bred at Tarentum. According to Palladius they were also sometimes called Asiatic (Asianæ). It is to be observed that by Asia, Palladius and his contemporaries would understand the celebrated sheep-country of which Miletus was the centre; and considering the frequent, long-established, and very friendly intercourse between Miletus and Tarentum, we may infer that the Milesians imported into Tarentum their fine breed of sheep, and at the same time introduced the art of dyeing and preparing the wool. The same sheep, which were called Greek by the Romans, were called Italian by the Egyptians and others, to whom the word Greek would not have been distinctive. Columella (vii. 4.) insists particularly on the great pains and care, which it was necessary to bestow upon this description of sheep, the “covered” or “soft,” in regard to food, warmth, and cleanliness, and he says that they were principally brought up in the house.

As there was in general a great affinity between the manners and ideas of Sicily and South Italy, we might infer that the pastoral habits of these two districts were in many respects similar. Theocritus accordingly lays the scene of some of his Idylls on the coast opposite to Sicily. The fifth Idyll describes a contest between a shepherd and a goatherd, who are supposed to have been employed as hired servants in the vicinity of Sybaris. The shepherd, observing some of his sheep to be feeding on an oak, which could not be very good for them, utters the following exclamation, showing that it was customary to give proper names to sheep, and thus confirming the fact, that in ancient times they were regarded as the objects of affection, and not of profitable speculation merely:

Οὐκ ἀπὸ τᾶς δρυὸς οὗτος ὁ Κώναρος, ἅ τε Κυναίθα·
Τουτεὶ βοσκησεῖσθε ποτ’ ἀντολὰς, ὡς ὁ Φάλαρος.

Ho! Sharphorn, Browning, leave those hurtful weeds,
And come and graze this way, where Colly feeds.
Creech’s Translation.

The passage has often been cited in illustration of the following verses from the Gospel of St. John. Our Savior, describing himself as a shepherd, here alludes to various indications of care and attachment, which distinguish the owner of a flock from the hireling, who, being engaged to tend the sheep only for a season, could not be so well known by them, nor so much interested in their security and welfare.

“He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth (from the fold) his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”—John, x. 3-5.

In reference to this passage of Scripture the following remarks of a late traveller are instructive:

“I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to sheep. He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning (March 5, 1828), I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him to call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd, with signs of pleasure and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true of the sheep in this country, that a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of the strangers. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still WILD; that they had not yet learned their names; but that by teaching they would all learn them. The others, which knew their names, he called TAME.”—Researches in Greece and the Levant, by the Rev. John Hartley, p. 321.

The city of Sybaris stood between two rivers, the Sybaris and the Crathis. The ancients asserted that the sheep which drank of the Crathis, were white, and those which drank of the Sybaris, black. They attributed similar virtues to other streams in various parts of the world.

According to Strabo (L. vi. cap. 3. § 9. p. 303. ed. Siebenkees) the hilly promontory of Garganus was particularly celebrated for its sheep. He says, that their wool was softer than the Tarentine, but less shining.

The Roman poets allude in various instances to the excellence of the Apulian wool, and especially to that of Tarentum. Horace in the following stanza expresses his predilection for this celebrated city, and mentions its “soft” or “covered” sheep. He had been asserting his wish to end his days at Tibur, the modern Tivoli.

But, should the partial Fates refuse
That purer air to let me breathe,
Galesus, thy sweet stream I’ll choose,
Where flocks of richest fleeces bathe:
Phalanthus there his rural sceptre sway’d,
Uncertain offspring of a Spartan maid.
Od. l. ii. 6.—Francis’s Translation.

Martial alludes to the celebrity of the Tarentine wool in no less than five of his epigrams.

Spartan Galesus did your toga lave,
Or from a flock select fair Parma gave.
L. ii. ep. 43. l. 3, 4.

The poet intended here to describe a toga of the most expensive and fashionable kind.

You give, O Chloe, to Lupercus,
Your tender favorite, lacernas
Of Spanish, Tyrian, scarlet fleeces,
And togas wash’d in warm Galesus.
L. iv. ep. 28. l. 1-3.

Thou wast more sweet, O lovely child!
Than song of aged dying swans:
Thy voice, thy mien were soft and mild
As Phalantine Galesus’ lambs.
L. v. ep. 37. l. 1, 2.

The last lines were written by Martial on the death of Erotion in her sixth year. He describes her interesting qualities by comparing her to a lamb of the soft Tarentine breed, always clothed and usually kept in the house and hence remarkably tender and delicate.

The following epigram (L. viii. ep. 28.) was written on the receipt of a handsome toga from the wealthy and munificent Parthenius, chamberlain to the emperor Domitian. In expressing his admiration of it, the poet enumerates the places from which the Romans of his time obtained the best and most fashionable garments of this description. He next proceeds to extol its whiteness; and in conclusion observes how ridiculous he would appear wearing his old lacerna over this new and snowy garment, and he thus conveys a hint to Parthenius how acceptable and suitable would be the present of a lacerna in addition to the toga.

De Partheniana toga.

Dic, toga, facundi gratum mihi munus amici,
Esse velis cujus fama, decusque gregis?
Appula Ledæi tibi floruit herba Phalanthi,
Quà saturat Calabris culta Galesus aquis?
An Tartessiacus stabuli nutritor Iberi
Bætis in Hesperia te quoque lavit aqua?
An tua multifidum numeravit lana Timavum,
Quem prius astrifero Cyllarus ore bibit?
Te nec Amyclæo decuit livere veneno;
Nec Miletus erat vellere digna tuo.
Lilia tu vincis, nec adhuc dilapsa ligustra,
Et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur.

Spartanus tibi cedet olor, Phaphiæque columbæ:
Cedet Erythræis eruta gemma vadis.
Sed licet hæc primis nivibus sint æmula dona,
Non sunt Parthenio candidiora suo.
Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbè
Texta, Semiramia quæ variantur acu.
Non Athamantæo potius me mirer in auro,
Æolium dones si mihi, Phryxe, decus.
O quantos risus pariter spectata movebit
Trita Palatina nostra lacerna toga!

Say, grateful gift of mine ingenious friend,
What happy flock shall to thy fleece pretend?
For thee did herb of famed Phalantus blow,
Where clear Galesus bids his waters flow?
Did thy wool count the streamlets, more than seven,
Of him, who slaked the warrior horse of heaven?
Or did Tartessian Guadalquiver lave
Thy matchless woof in his Hesperian wave?
Thou didst not need to taste Amyclæ’s bane,
And wouldst have tried Milesian art in vain.
With thee the lily and the privet pale
Compared, and Tibur’s whitest ivory fail.
The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deplore
Their hue, and pearls on Erythrean shore.
But, though the boon leave new-fall’n snows behind,
It is not purer than the donor’s mind.
I would prefer no Babylonian vest,
Superbly broider’d at a queen’s behest;
Nor better pleased should I my limbs behold,
Phryxus, in webs of thine Æolian gold.
But O! what laughter will the contrast crown,
My worn lacerna on th’ imperial gown!

It may be observed, that in this ingenious epigram, as well as in two of the preceding, which relate to togas, Martial supposes the Tarentine wool to be white: for the Roman toga was of that color except in mourning, and one object of the last-cited epigram is to praise the whiteness of the particular toga, which it describes. The Tarentines therefore must have produced both dark-colored and white fleeces.

The fifth passage of Martial (xii. 64.), which mentions the sheep of the Galesus, more directly refers to those of Spain, and will therefore be quoted under that head.

Besides the epigrams, now cited, in which Martial commends the wool of Tarentum in particular, we find others, in which he celebrates that of Apulia in general. In Book xiv. Ep. 155. he gives an account of the principal countries, which yielded white wools, and informs us that those of the first quality were from Apulia.

White Wools.

The first Apulia’s; next is Parma’s boast;
And the third fleece Altinum has engrost.
Elphinston’s Translation.

Also in the following lines Martial alludes to the large and numerous flocks of Apulia, and to the whiteness of their wool.

Of white thou hast to clothe a tribe sufficient stock,
The produce fair of more than one Apulian flock.
L. ii. Ep. 46. l. 5, 6.

On the other hand the wool from the vicinity of Canusium was no less esteemed for its dark colors, whether inclining to brown or to red. These saved the expense of dyeing. The testimony of Pliny to their value has been already produced. In the two following Epigrams (l. xiv. 127 and 129.) Martial alludes to the peculiar recommendations and uses, first of the brown, and secondly of the reddish variety.

This Canusine lacerna, it is true,
Looks muddy: but it will not change its hue.
Rome in the brown delights, gay Gaul in red:
This pleases boys, and whose is blood to shed.

On referring to the passages produced from Pliny, Columella, and Martial, it will be seen that the Romans ascribed a very high value to the white wool of Gallia Cisalpina, i. e. of North Italy, or the region about the Po. Parma was considered second only to Apulia for the whiteness of its wool. Besides the two epigrams of Martial already cited, he refers to Parma as a great place for sheep-breeding in the following passage, addressed to the wealthy Callistratus:

And Gallic Parma shears thy num’rous flocks.

L. v. ep. 13.

Columella speaks moreover (l. c.) of the superiority of the wool of Mutina, now Modena; and Martial (l. v. ep. 105.) mentions the circumstance of a fuller, or clothier, in that city having exhibited a show to the public, which is a presumptive evidence that he had a great business in manufacturing the produce of the surrounding country.

Strabo in his account of the productions of Cisalpine Gaul divides the wool into three kinds; First, the soft kind, of which the finest varieties were grown about Mutina and the river Scutana, which is the modern Scultenna, a tributary of the Po, rising in the Apennines; Secondly, the coarse kind, grown in Liguria and the country of the Insubres, which was very much used for the common wearing apparel of the Italians; and Thirdly, the middle kind, grown about Patavium (now Padua) and employed for making valuable carpets and various descriptions of blankets. By comparing the statements of this author with those of Columella and Martial it will appear, that the whole region watered by the parallel rivers Parma, Gabellus, and Scultenna, and known by the name of Macri Campi, or the Barren Plains, was esteemed for the production of the fine white wool.

That the tending of both sheep and goats was a principal occupation of the people of Mantua we learn from Virgil, a native of that city, who places the scene of most of his pastorals in its vicinity. His First and Ninth Eclogues more particularly relate to the calamities, which the Mantuans were compelled to sustain, when Augustus seized on their lands to reward his veteran soldiers after the battle of Philippi. These eclogues mention flocks both of sheep and goats, and show that those who had the care of them cultivated music and poetry after the manner of the Sicilians. The commencement of the Seventh Eclogue is especially instructive, because it gives us reason to believe, that while many of the Arcadians left their country in consequence of that excess of population, to which mountainous regions are subject, in order to become foreign mercenaries, others, on the contrary, entered into foreign service as shepherds and goatherds, and in this condition not only made themselves useful by their experience, skill, and fidelity, but also introduced at the same time their native music together with that refinement of manners and feelings which it promoted. The poet thus describes two such individuals, who had been employed in tending flocks upon the banks of the Mincius (l. 12, 13), and who were either born in Arcadia, or were at least of Arcadian origin.

Two blooming swains had join’d their flocks in one,
Thyrsis his sheep, and tuneful Corydon
His goats, which bore their treasur’d milk along;
Arcadians both, both skill’d in amœbean song.

At a considerable distance to the North-East of Mantua lay Altinum, which is mentioned by Columella, Tertullian, and Martial, as one of the principal places for the produce of white wool. Martial says, that it ranked in this respect next to Parma, and we must understand him as referring to the same region in Book viii. Epig. 28, where he asks, “Did thy wool count the many streams of the Timavus, which Cyllarus previously drank with his starry mouth?” The Timavus was indeed a considerable way still further towards the North-East, and must have been very insignificant in connection with the sheep-breeding of the Altinates. The poet introduces it here only on account of its picturesque and mythological interest, just as we have seen that the Galesus, a small, though clear and very beautiful stream, is repeatedly named in order to designate the pastoral region about Tarentum. It may also be observed, that in this epigram, where Martial alludes to three of the principal places for the growth of white wool, he indicates each of them by its river, the three rivers being the Galesus, the Bætis, and the Timavus; and he probably did so on account of the supposed effect of the waters of these rivers in improving the wool.

We can make no question, after what we have seen of the universal practice of both ancient and modern times, that the sheep, which in the winter were pastured in the plains and lower grounds about Altinum, were taken to pass the summer in the vallies of the Carinthian Alps about the sources of the Brenta, the Piave, and the Tagliamento. We may also trace the wool, after it was manufactured, in its progress towards Rome, where was the chief demand for garments of this description. For Strabo says, that Patavium (Padua), which was situated at no great distance from Altinum on the way to Rome, was a great and flourishing mart for all kinds of merchandize intended to be sent thither, and especially for every kind of cloth. It appears, therefore, that the wool-growers and clothiers of the country to the North-East of Padua, the modern Trevisano, employed that city as an entrepôt where they disposed of their goods to the Roman dealers. At the same time we learn, that this place served as a market for carpets and blankets made of a stronger and more substantial material, which, according to the same authority, was produced in its more immediate vicinity.

In the North-Western portion of Cisalpine Gaul the wool was generally coarse, and according to Strabo (l. c.) the garments made of it were used by the Italians for the ordinary clothing of their domestic establishments. Nevertheless, black wool of superior value was grown at Polentia, now Polenza, on the Stura, which is a tributary of the Po. The following two Epigrams of Martial (l. xiv. 157 and 158.) allude to the use of the dark wool of Polentia for mourning and for the dress of inferior domestic servants.

Polentine Wools.

1. Not wools alone, that wear the face of woe;
Her goblets once did proud Polentia show.

2. Our sable hue to croplings may belong,
That tend the table, not of primal throng.
Elphinston’s Translation.

The country people about Modena and in other parts of the Northern Apennines still wear undyed woollen cloth of a gray color. Muratori quotes from the statutes of the city of Modena, A. D. 1327, a law to prevent the makers of such cloth from mixing with their gray wool the hair of oxen, asses, or other animals.

Before quitting Italy we may properly inquire, whence and how came the practice of sheep-breeding into Great Britain. It has already been observed that the very improved state of the art at Tarentum may be in part ascribed to the intercourse of its inhabitants with the Milesians. The reader will have noticed the fact that the worship of Pan was introduced into Italy from Arcadia by Evander, from which circumstance it may be reasonably inferred, that improvements in the management of sheep were also introduced at the same time. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Evander with his companions was said by the Romans to have migrated to Latium about sixty years before the Trojan war. The same historian alleges that this colony taught in Italy the use of letters, of instrumental music and other arts, established laws, and brought some degree of refinement instead of the former savage mode of life. The story of the birth of Romulus and Remus supposes sheep-breeding to have been practiced at the period of that event, and in a state of society similar to that which we have found prevailing further eastward; for it is stated, that Faustulus, who discovered them, kept the king’s flocks. He was “magister regii pecoris.”

According to Pausanias (l. viii. c. 3. § 2.) the first Greek colony, which went into Italy, was from Arcadia, being conducted thither by Œnotrus, an Arcadian prince. This was several centuries before the expedition under Evander, and the part of Italy thus colonized was the southern extremity, afterwards occupied by the Bruttii. If with Niebuhr we regard this tradition only in the light of a genealogical table, designed to indicate the affinities of tribes and nations, still the simple fact of the colonization of South Italy by Arcadians certainly authorizes the conjecture, that Arcadia was one of the stepping-stones, by which the art of sheep-breeding was transported from Asia into Europe.

The reader will have perceived from the observations already made on the worship of Faunus in Italy, that the Roman Faunus was the same with the Arcadian Pan. It seems no sufficient objection to this hypothesis, that a few Roman authors have supposed Faunus to be either the son of Mars, or of Picus and the grandson of Saturn, thus connecting him with their native mythology, or that his oracle was held by them in high repute. It is here sufficient to remark, that we find him extensively recognized in Italy as a pastoral divinity.

Stretch’d on the springing grass, the shepherd swain
His reedy pipe with rural music fills;
The god, who guards his flock, approves the strain,
The god, who loves Arcadia’s gloomy hills.
Horat. Carm. iv. 12. 9-12.—Francis’s Translation.

The above stanza occurs in a description of the beauties of spring, and the poet no doubt alludes to the pastoral habits of his Sabine neighbors.

From ancient monuments as well as from the language of the poets we find, that the worship of other divinities was associated with that of Faunus in reference to the success of all agricultural pursuits including that of sheep-breeding. Boissard, in the Fourth Part of his Antiquitates Romanæ, has published somewhat rude engravings of the bas-reliefs upon two altars, one of them (No. 130) dedicated to Hope, the other (No. 134) to Silvanus. The altar to Hope was erected, as the inscription expresses, in a garden at Rome by M. Aur. Pacorus, keeper of the temple of Venus. He says, that he had been admonished to this deed of piety by a dream; and, if the representation in the bas-relief was the image thus presented to his mind, his dream was certainly a very pleasant one. Hope, wearing on her head a wreath of flowers, places her right hand upon a pillar and holds in her left poppy-heads and ears of corn. Beside her is a bee-hive on the ground, and on it there is also fixed a bunch of poppy-heads and ears of corn. Above these emblems of the fruitfulness of the field and of the garden is the figure of a bale of wool.

The altar to Silvanus exhibits that divinity crowned with the cones and foliage of the pine. A pine grows moreover beside his terminal statue, bearing the large cones, which were used for food at entertainments and carried in bacchanalian processions. Faunus, or Pan, sits at the foot of the pine, the syrinx and the double pipe being placed at his feet. In his right hand he holds an olive branch, while a young winged genius advances towards him as if to receive it, and another genius of the same kind appears to be caressing him and whispering into his ear. On the other side of the terminal statue of Silvanus we see the caduceus of Mercury and the bale of wool, manifest indications of success in the wool trade. In this sculpture the bale is surrounded with cords, which are twisted round one another where they cross. In the former instance the compression of the wool appears to be effected by the use of thongs instead of cords. There is also introduced the figure of a shepherd of the same country. This statue was found in the vicinity of Rome and is now preserved in the Vatican. The extremities are in part restorations. A cameo in the Florentine Museum represents the shepherd Faustulus sitting upon a rock, and contemplating the she-wolf, which is suckling Romulus and Remus. It is of the Augustan age, and no doubt exhibits the costume and general appearance of a Roman shepherd of that period. He wears a tunica cucullata, i. e. a tunic of coarse woollen cloth with a cowl, which was designed to be drawn occasionally over the head and to protect it from the injuries of the weather. This garment has also sleeves, which Columella mentions (tunica manicata) as an additional comfort. On his feet the shepherd wears high shoes, or boots, which, as we may suppose, were made of leather.

The appearance of the shepherds, who are represented in these ancient works of art, is, doubtless, adapted to produce the impression, that their condition, even if it were that of slaves, was nevertheless one of comfort and respectability. Neither their garb, nor their attitude, suggests the idea of anything base or miserable. On the contrary, the countenance of each indicates trust-worthiness, steadiness, and care. That many of the agricultural laborers of ancient Italy had this character may be inferred also from written testimonies.

In reference to this subject, and with a view to illustrate at the same time the habits and employments of the ancient farmer among the Sabine or Apulian mountains, we will here quote some parts of Horace’s Second Epode, in which he describes the pleasures of a country life.

Like the first mortals blest is he,
From debts, and usury, and bus’ness free,
With his own team who ploughs the soil,
Which grateful once confess’d his father’s toil.

The sounds of war nor break his sleep,
Nor the rough storm, that harrows up the deep;
He shuns the courtier’s haughty doors,
And the loud science of the bar abjures.

Either to poplars tall he joins
The marriageable offspring of his vines;
Or lops the useless boughs away,
Inserting happier as the old decay:

Or in a lonely vale surveys
His lowing herds, safe-wand’ring as they graze;
Or stores in jars his liquid gold
Prest from the hive, or shears his tender fold.

And, if a chaste and prudent wife
Perform her part in the sweet cares of life,
Of sun-burnt charms, but honest fame,
Such as the Sabine or Apulian dame;

If, when fatigued he homeward turns,
The sacred fire, built up with faggots, burns;
Or if in hurdles she inclose
The joyful flock, whence ample produce flows;

Though unbought dainties she prepare,
And this year’s wines attend the homely fare;
No fish would I from foreign shore
Desire, nor relish Lucrine oysters more.

Olives, fresh gather’d from the tree;
Mallows, the frame from heaviness to free;
A kid snatch’d from the wolf, a lamb
To Terminus with due devotion slain;

Such is the meal, his labor o’er;
No bird from distant climes I’d relish more.
Meanwhile how pleasant to behold
His sheep well fed, and hasting to their fold;

To see his wearied oxen bow
Their languid necks, and drag th’ inverted plough;
And then his num’rous slaves to view
Round his domestic gods their mirth pursue.

Chapter III. Sheep Breeding and Pastoral Life of the Ancients—Illustrations of the Scriptures, &c.

Sheep-breeding in Germany and Gaul—In Britain—Improved by the Belgians and Saxons—Sheep-breeding in Spain—Natural dyes of Spanish wool—Golden hue and other natural dyes of the wool of Bætica—Native colors of Bætic wool—Saga and chequered plaids—Sheep always bred principally for the weaver, not for the butcher—Sheep supplied milk for food, wool for clothing—The moth.

According to Tacitus, the ancient Germans had abundance of cattle, although we have no reason to suppose that they had acquired any of that skill in sheep-breeding, by which their successors in Silesia and Saxony are now distinguished. On the contrary, we are informed by the same author that the only woollen garment, which they commonly wore, was the Sagum, a term implying the coarseness of the material.

We find almost as little in any ancient author in favor of the wool of Gallia Transalpina, the modern France. Pliny mentions a coarse kind, more like hair than wool, which was produced in the neighborhood of Pezenas in Provence. Martial’s account of the Endromis Sequanica, coarse, but useful to keep off the cold and wet, bears upon the same point;

The frousy foster of a female hand;
Of name Laconian, from a barb’rous land;
Though rude, yet welcome to December’s snow,
To thee we bid the homely stranger go:

That into glowing limbs no cold may glide,
That baleful Iris never drench thy pride:
This fence shall bid thee scorn the winds and showers;
The Tyrian lawn pretends no equal powers.
Elphinston’s Translation.

In the following epigram of Martial (vi. 11.), addressed to his friend Marcus, we observe a similar opposition between the fine and fashionable cloth of Tyre, and the thick coarse “sagum” produced in Gaul.

Proud Tyrian thine, gross Gaulish mine array:
In purple thee can e’er I love in gray?

Juvenal gives exactly the same account of the woollen manufactures of Gaul. In the following passage the needy dependant of a rich man is speaking of the lacernas from that country, which were sometimes presented to him by his patron.

Some coarse brown cloaks perhaps I chance to get,
Of Gallic fabric, as a fence from wet.
Satir. ix. v. 30.—Owen’s Translation.

To the same effect are several passages in the Epistles of Sidonius Apollinaris, who was Bishop of Clermont in Auvergne in the fifth century. He mentions, for example, that the attendants on Prince Sigismer at his marriage wore green Saga with red borders, and he describes a friend of his own as wearing the Endromis. Also in an account of his own villa he speaks of the pipe with seven holes, as the instrument of the shepherds and herdsmen, who used to entertain themselves during the night with musical contests, while their cattle were grazing with bells upon their necks.

All these passages are confirmed and illustrated by the testimony of Strabo. According to him Gaul produced cattle of all kinds. The Belgæ, who occupied the most northern part, opposite to Britain, excelled the rest of the Gauls in their manufactures. Nevertheless their wool was coarse, and was spun and woven by them into the thick Saga, which were both worn by the natives of the country and exported in great quantities to Rome and other parts of Italy. The Roman settlers, indeed, in the most northern parts had flocks of covered sheep, and their wool was consequently very fine.

Here also may be produced the evidence of Eumenius, who in his Oration, which will be quoted more fully hereafter, intimates the abundance of the sheep on the western banks of the Rhine by saying, that the flocks of the Romans were washed in every part of the stream.

Cæsar informs us, that the ancient inhabitants of Britain had abundance of cattle (pecoris magnus numerus); under the word (pecus) “cattle,” sheep must no doubt be understood to be included. It also appears, that in his time the Celts, or proper Britons, lived to the North of the Thames, the Belgians having expelled them and taken possession of the part to the South, called Cantium or Kent. These last were by far the most civilized inhabitants of the island, not much differing in their customs from the Gauls. With respect to the others, Cæsar says, that for the most part they did not sow any kind of grain, but lived upon milk and flesh, and clothed themselves with skins.

It appears therefore, that before our æra, sheep, and probably goats, were bred extensively in England, their milk and flesh being used for food, and their skins with the wool or hair upon them for clothing; and that the people of Kent, who were of Belgic origin, and more refined than the original Britons, had attained to the arts of spinning and weaving, although their productions were only of the coarsest description.

Eumenius, the Rhetorician, who was a native of Augustodunum, now called Autun, delivered his Panegyric in praise of the Emperors Constantius and Constantine in the city of Treves about A. D. 310. In the following passage he congratulates Britain on its various productions, and also on the circumstance, that Constantine had been recently declared Emperor at York on the death of his father:

O fortunate Britain, now the happiest country upon earth; for thou hast been the first to see Constantine made Emperor. It was fit that on thee Nature should bestow every blessing of climate and of soil. Suffering neither from the excessive severity of winter, nor the heat of summer, thy harvests are so fruitful as to supply all the gifts both of Ceres and of Bacchus; thy woods contain no savage beasts, thy land no noxious serpents, but an innumerable multitude of tame cattle, distended with milk, and loaded with fleeces.

The improvements in sheep-breeding which were first introduced into England by the Belgians, appear to have been advanced still further by the Saxons.

The only country, which now remains to be surveyed in relation to the production of sheep’s wool, is Spain; and, as this kingdom retains its pre-eminence at the present day, so we find none, in which sheep-breeding was carried to a greater extent in ancient times.

Of all the countries in Europe, says Mr. Low, Spain has been the longest distinguished for the excellence of its wool. This fine country, more varied in its surface and natural productions than any other region of the like extent in Europe, produces a great variety of breeds of sheep, from the larger animals of the richer plains, to the smaller races of the higher mountains and arid country. Besides the difference produced in the sheep of Spain by varieties of climate and natural productions; the diversity of character in the animals may be supposed to have been increased by the different races introduced into it:—first, from Asia, by the early Phœnician colonies; secondly, from Africa by the Carthaginians, during their brief possession; thirdly, from Italy by the Romans, during their dominion of six hundred years; and fourthly, again from Africa, by the Moors, who maintained a footing in the country for nearly eight centuries. The large sheep of the plains have long wool, often colored brown or black. The sheep of the mountains, downs, and arid plains have short wool, of different degrees of fineness, and different colors. The most important of these latter breeds is the merino, now the most esteemed and widely diffused of all the fine-wooled breeds of Europe.

Pliny not only refers in general terms to the various natural colors of the Spanish wool, but mentions more particularly the red wool produced in the district adjoining the river Bætis, or Guadalquiver.

Among the natural colors of the Bætic wool, Columella, a native of Cadiz, (vii. 2.) mentions, as has been already stated, gray and brown. The latter is what we call drab, and the Spaniards fusco. It is now commonly worn by the shepherds and peasants of Spain, the wool being made into clothes without dyeing.

Nonius Marcellus (cap. 16. n. 13), explaining the word pullus, which was called a native color, because it was the natural color of the fleece, also shows, that this was a common quality of the Spanish wool. Another testimony is that of Tertullian.

The sheep of Tarentum were imported into this part of Spain, and there also their fleeces were protected by clothing. Columella (L. vii. 2.) gives a very interesting account of the experiments made by his uncle, a great agriculturalist of Bætica, in crossing his Tarentine breed with some wild rams of an extraordinary color, which had been brought from Africa to Cadiz. (See latter part of next chapter.)

We have a further evidence of the pains taken to improve the Spanish breed in the circumstance, that Italian shepherds passed into Spain, just as we have formerly seen, that they migrated into Italy from Arcadia. In the following lines of Calpurnius (Ecl. iv. 37-49.), Corydon, a young shepherd, tells his friend and patron, Melibœus, that he should have been transported into Bætica, had not the times improved, and his master’s favor enabled him to remain in Italy.

Through thee I rest secure beneath the shade,
Such plenty hath thy generous bounty made,
But for thy favor, Melibœus, sent
Where Bætis’ waves the western plains indent,
Plains at the earth’s extremest verge, expos’d
To the fierce Moors, which Geryon once inclos’d.
There had I now been doom’d to tend for hire
Iberian flocks, or else of want expire:
In vain I might have tun’d my seven-fold reed:
Mid thickets vast no soul my strains would heed:
Not even Pan on that far-distant shore
Would lend his vacant ear, or be my solace more.

Juvenal in his Twelfth Satire (l. 37-42.) describes a merchant overtaken by a dreadful storm, and to save the ship throwing his most valuable goods into the sea. It will be observed, that the poet attributes the excellence and fine natural color of the woollen cloth of Bætica to three causes, the rich herbage, the occult properties of the water, and those of the air.

“Over with mine,” he cries; “be nothing spar’d;”
To part with all his richest goods prepar’d;
His vests of Tyrian purple, fit to please
The softest of the silken sons of ease,
And other robes, which took a native stain
From air and water on the Bætic plain.
Owen’s Translation.

Strabo (iii. 144. p. 385. ed. Sieb.) gives the following account of the wool of Turdetania.

Πολλὴ δὲ καὶ ἐσθὴς πρότερον ἤρχετο· νῦν δὲ καὶ ἔρια μᾶλλον τῶν Κυραξῶν, καὶ ὑπερβολή τις ἐστὶ τοῦ κάλλους· ταλαντιαίους γοῦν ὠνοῦνται τοὺς κριοὺς εἰς τὰς ὀχείας, ὑπερβολὴ δὲ καὶ τῶν λεπτῶν ὑφασμάτων, ἅπερ οἱ Σαλτιῆται κατασκευάζουσιν.

“Much cloth used formerly to come from this country. Now also fleeces come from it more than from the Coraxi; and they are exceedingly beautiful, so that rams for breeding are sold for a talent each. Also the fine webs are very famous, which are made by the Saltiatæ.”—Yates’s Translation.

The reader will please to remark, that this is the passage of Strabo, formerly referred to as containing evidence respecting the Coraxi.

Martial, a Spaniard by birth, frequently alludes to the sheep of Bætica and especially to the various natural colors of their wool, which were so much admired, that it was manufactured without dyeing. Two of his epigrams (iv. 28. and viii. 28.) have been already quoted, as they refer also to the sheep of Tarentum: to these the seven following may be added.

In the Tartessian lands a house appears,
Where Cordova o’er placid Bætis rears
Her wealthy domes; and where the fleeces show
Metallic tints, like living gold that glow.
ix. 62.

Corduba, more joyous far
Than Venafrum’s unctuous boast;
Nor inferior to the jar,
That renowns glad Istria’s coast:
Who surmount’st the fleecy breed,
That the bright Galesus laves;
Nor bidd’st lying purple bleed
O’er the hue, that nature craves.
xii. 63.—Elphinston’s Translation.

Bætis, with wreaths of unctuous olive crown’d,
For Bacchus’ and for Pallas’ gifts renown’d;
Whose waters clear a golden hue impart
To fleeces, that require no further art;
Such wealth the Ruler of the waves conveys
In ships, that mark with foam thy liquid ways.
xii. 99.

Lacernas from Bætica.

My wool disdains a lye, or caldron hue.
Poor Tyre may take it: me my sheep imbue.
xiv. 133.—Elphinston’s Translation.

Charming Ero’s golden lock
Beat the fleece of Bætic flock.
v. 37. See § 21.—Ib.

Bætic fleeces, many a pound.
xii. 65. l. 5.

Let him commend the sober native hues;
Of Bætic drab, or gray, lacernas choose,
Who thinks no man in scarlet should appear,
And only women pink or purple wear.
i. 97.

The numerous passages, which have now been produced relative to the native colors of the Spanish wool, explain the following line of Virgil, in which he describes the clothing of a warrior;

With broider’d chlamys bright, and Spanish rust.
Æn. ix. 582.

The poet probably intended to describe an outer garment, a chlamys, made of undyed Spanish wool of a clear brown or yellowish color, resembling that of rust; and afterwards enriched with embroidery.

Ramirez de Prado, the Spanish commentator on Martial (4to. Paris, 1607.), says, that two native colors were common in Spain in his time, the one a golden yellow, the other more brown or ferruginous.

In the North of Spain the Celtiberi wore saga made of a coarse wool like goats’-hair (Diod. Sic. v. 33. tom. i. p. 356. Wesseling.), and woven double according to Appian.

At Salacia in Lusitania, according to Pliny, a chequered pattern was employed in the manufacture of the coarse wool. This was in all probability the same as the shepherd’s plaid of the Scotch, the weaver taking advantage of the natural difference of the white and black wool to produce this variety of appearance. (See Appendix A.)

Estremadura, a part of the ancient Bætica, is still famous for its wool. There the Spanish flocks hybernate, and under the direction of a peculiar code of laws, called La Mesta, are conducted every spring to pasture in the mountains of Leon and Asturias. Other flocks are led in the same season from great distances to the heights of the Sierra Morena, lying to the east of the ancient Bætica, where the vegetation is remarkably favorable to the improvement of their wool.

As bearing directly upon the present inquiry it may be observed, that sheep have always been bred principally for the weaver, not for the butcher, and that this has been more especially the case in ancient times and in eastern countries.

If we may judge from the following epigram of Martial, the Romans regarded with feelings little short of aversion the act of killing a sheep for food except on solemn or extraordinary occasions.

The Ram’s head.

Hast pierc’d the neck of the Phryxean lord,
Who oft had shelter’d thine? O deed abhorr’d!
xii. 211.—Elphinston’s Translation.

The customs of the shepherd tribes in the East are in this respect remarkably like those of the ancients.

“The Arabs rarely diminish their flocks by using them for food, but live chiefly upon bread, dates, milk, butter, or what they receive in exchange for their wool. They however sell their sheep to the people in the towns. A lamb or kid roasted whole is a favorite dish at Aleppo, but seldom eaten except by the rich.” When the Arabs have a sheep-shearing, they perhaps kill a lamb, and treat their relations and friends with it together with new cheese and milk, but nothing more. Among the Mohammedans sheep are sacrificed on certain days as a festive and at the same time a religious ceremony; these ceremonies are of great antiquity and derived from Arab heathenism. On the pilgrimage to Mecca every one is required to sacrifice a sheep at a certain place near Mecca.

By the Law of Moses the sheep was a clean animal, and might consequently be eaten or sacrificed. A lamb or kid, roasted whole, was the principal and characteristic dish at the feast of the passover. The rich man kills a lamb to entertain his guest in the beautiful parable of Nathan. (2 Sam. xii. 4.) Sheep were killed on the festive occasion of shearing the very numerous flocks of Nabal. (1 Sam. xxv. 2. 11. 18.) An ox and six choice sheep were sacrificed daily for the numerous guests of Nehemiah, while he was building the wall of Jerusalem. (Neh. v. 17, 18.) Immense numbers of sheep and oxen were sacrificed at the dedication of Solomon’s temple. (1 Kings, viii. 5. 63.) The prophet Ezekiel (xxxiv. 3.) describes the bad shepherd as selfishly eating the flesh and clothing himself with the wool of the sheep, without tending them with due care and labor.

In the Suovetaurilia among the Romans a hog, a sheep, and a bull, their principal domestic animals, were sacrificed. A sheep was killed every day for the guards, who watched the tomb of Cyrus. (Arrian, vol. i. p. 438, Blancardi.) In the Odyssey (ρ. 180-182.) a sacrifice is made and a feast prepared of sheep, goats, hogs, and a cow. Also in Od. v. 3. 250. sheep are sacrificed and furnish part of a feast. In order to ratify a treaty between the Greeks and Trojans, the former sacrificed a lamb of the male sex to Jupiter; the latter one of the male sex and white to the Sun, and another of the female sex and black to the Earth. (Il. γ. 103, 104.) Sheep are sacrificed to Apollo at Delphi in Euripides, Ion, l. 230. 380. The rare instances of the use of sheep for food or sacrifice by the Egyptians have been already noticed.

But, although sheep, both old and young, male and female, were sacrificed to the objects of religious worship and on other festive occasions were eaten, especially by the rich and great, yet their chief use was to supply clothing, and the nourishment they yielded consisted in their milk and the cheese made from it, rather than in their flesh.

This fact is illustrated by the words of Solomon, formerly quoted, and in which he speaks of lambs for clothing and goat’s milk for food. In like manner St. Paul says (1 Cor. ix. 7.), “Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?”

Varro thinks, that sheep were employed for the use of man before any other animal on account of their usefulness and placidity, and he represents their use to consist in supplying cheese and milk for food, fleeces and skins for clothing. In like manner Columella in his account of the use of sheep (vii. 2.) says, they afforded the chief materials for clothing. In treating of their use for food, he mentions only their milk and cheese. Pliny refers to the employment of sheep both for sacrifices and for clothing. He also remarks, that as the ox is principally useful in obtaining food, to wit, by ploughing and other agricultural processes, the sheep, on the other hand, supplies materials for clothing.

The fact, that wool was among the ancients by far the most common material for making clothes, accounts for the various expressions in scripture respecting the destructiveness of the moth.

“Your garments are moth-eaten.” James v. 2. “He, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten.”—Job xiii. 28. “They all shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.”—Is. l. 9. “The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worms shall eat them like wool.” Is. li. 8. “From garments cometh a moth.” Eccles. xlii. 13. “Treasures, where moth and rust corrupt.” Matt. vi. 19.

But it is to be observed, that the sacred writers mention not the moth, but the minute worm, which changes into a moth, and which alone gnaws the garments. In the passages which have been quoted, the word “moth” must be understood to signify the larva of the clothes-moth (Phalæna Vestianella, Linn.), or of some insect of the same kind.

Chapter IV. Goats-Hair.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE GOAT—ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

Sheep-breeding and Goats in China—Probable origin of sheep and goats—Sheep and goats coeval with man, and always propagated together—Habits of Grecian goat-herds—He-goat employed to lead the flock—Cameo representing a goat-herd—Goats chiefly valued for their milk—Use of goats’-hair for coarse clothing—Shearing of goats in Phrygia, Cilicia, &c.—Vestes caprina, cloth of goats’-hair—Use of goats’-hair for military and naval purposes—Curtains to cover tents—Etymology of Sack and Shag—Symbolical uses of sack-cloth—The Arabs weave goats’-hair—Modern uses of goats’-hair and goats’-wool—Introduction of the Angora or Cashmere goat into France—Success of the project.

The inquiry into the origin and propagation of the Goat, no less than that of the sheep, may justly be considered a subject for interesting investigation. Goats were no less highly prized by the ancient inhabitants of Greece and Italy than by the modern. We have seen, that the great value of sheep always consisted in its fleece. The goat, on the contrary, was more valued for the excellence and abundance of its milk, and for its suitableness to higher and more rugged and unproductive land .

We observe a clear allusion to this distinction between the principal uses of sheep and of goats in the twenty-seventh chapter of the book of Proverbs. The management and use of goats has from time immemorial formed a striking feature in the condition of man, and especially of those nations which belong to the Caucasian, or, as Dr. Prichard more properly denominates it, the Iranian or Indo-Atlantic variety of our race . Their habits of sheep-breeding seem no less characteristic than the form of their countenances, a no less essential part of their manner of life than any other custom, by which they are distinguished: and, as all the circumstances, which throw any light upon the question, conspire to render it probable, that the above-mentioned variety of the human race first inhabited part of the high land of central Asia, so it is remarkable, that our domestic sheep and goats may with the greatest probability be referred to the same stock with certain wild animals, which now overspread those regions. The sheep, as has been already observed in chapter I., is regarded as specifically the same with the Argali; and in the opinion of Pallas, which has been very generally adopted by zoologists, the goat is the same with the Ægagrus, a gregarious quadruped, which occupies the loftiest parts of the mountains extending from the Caucasus to the South of the Caspian Sea, and thence to the North of India . Indeed the history of these animals is so interwoven with the history of man, that those naturalists have not reasoned quite correctly, who have thought it necessary to refer the first origin of either of them to any wild stock at all. They assume, that these quadrupeds first existed in an undomesticated state, that is, entirely apart from man and independent of him; that, as he advanced in civilization, as his wants multiplied, and he became more ingenious and active in inventing methods of supplying them, the thought struck him, that he might obtain from these wild beasts the materials of his food and clothing; and that he therefore caught and confined some of them and in the course of time rendered them by cultivation more and more suitable to his purposes.

We have no reason to assume, that man and the two lesser kinds of horned cattle were originally independent of one another. So far as geology supplies any evidence, it is in favor of the supposition, that these quadrupeds and man belong to the same epoch. No properly fossil bones either of the sheep or goat have yet been found, and we have no reason to believe, that these animals were produced until the creation of man. But, as we must suppose, that man was created perfect and full-grown, and with those means of subsistence around him, which his nature and constitution require, there is no reason why the sheep and the goat may not have been created in such a state as to be adapted immediately both for clothing and for food, or why it should be considered more probable that they were at first entirely wild. They may have been produced originally in the same abode, which was occupied by that variety of the human race, to whose habits and mode of life the use of them has always been so essential; and, if we assume, that this abode was somewhere in the elevated land of central Asia, in the region, for example, of Armenia, we adopt an hypothesis, which explains in the most simple and satisfactory manner the apparent fact of the propagation not only of men, but of these quadrupeds with them, from that centre over immense regions of the globe.

With regard to historical evidence, it is certainly very defective. No express testimony assures us of the facts included in the above-named hypothesis. One thing, however, is certain, and it appears very deserving of attention, viz. that the sheep and the goat have always been propagated together. We find great nations, which had no acquaintance with either of these quadrupeds, but depended for their subsistence upon either oxen or horses. We find others, on the contrary, to whose mode of life the larger quadrupeds were of much less importance than the smaller; but we find none, which were accustomed to breed sheep without goats, or goats without sheep.

The reader will find numerous illustrations of this fact on reviewing the evidence contained in the preceding chapters. General terms were employed in the ancient world to include both sheep and goats. Where more specific terms are used, we still find “rams and goats,” “ewes and she-goats” mentioned together. Sheep and goats were offered together in sacrifice, and the instances are too numerous to mention, in which the same flock, or the wealth of a single individual, included both these animals.

In consequence of this prevailing association of sheep and goats, they are often represented together in ancient bas-reliefs and other works of art. Of this we have a beautiful example in the Rev. Robert Walpole’s collection of “Travels in various countries of the East.” At the end of the volume is a plate taken from a votive tablet of Pentelic marble dedicated to Pan, and representing five goats, two sheep, and a lamb. As the goats are in one group, and the sheep and lamb in another, the artist probably designed to represent a flock of each. For, though sometimes mixed in the same flock, the two kinds of animals were generally kept apart; and to this circumstance our Savior alludes in his image of the shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats.

A sheep and a goat are seen reposing together in a Roman bas-relief in the Monumenta Matthæiana, vol. iii. tab. 37. fig. 1.

Rosselini gives two paintings from Egyptian tombs, which exhibit both sheep and goats; and he mentions an inscription on the tomb of Ranni, according to which that person had 120 goats, 300 rams, 1500 hogs, and 122 oxen.

In the account given in chapter II. of the Sicilian Daphnis, an epigram by Callimachus on Astacides, who was a goatherd in Crete, was partially quoted, probably remarkable for his beauty and his immature death. The translation of the passage will now be given.

Ἀστακίδην τὸν Κρῆτα, τὸν αἰπόλον, ἥρπασε Νύμφη
Ἐξ ὄρεος· καὶ νῦν ἱερὸς Ἀστακίδης
Οἰκεῖ Δικταίῃσιν ὑπὸ δρυσίν· οὐκέτι Δάφνιν
Ποιμένες, Ἀστακίδην δ’ αἰὲν ἀεισόμεθα.

A nymph has snatch’d Astacides away;
Beneath Dictæan oaks our goatherd lies:
Shepherds! no more your songs to Daphnis pay;
For now with him the sacred Cretan vies.
Yates’s Translation.

Theocritus (Idyll. vii. 12-20.) describes a goatherd of Cydon in Crete, named Lycidas; and from the account which he gives of his attire, we may judge of that commonly used in ancient Greece by the same description of persons. He wore on his shoulders the dun-colored hide of a shaggy goat, and an old shawl was fastened about his breast with a broad girdle. In his right hand he held a crook of wild olive.

The same author (Idyll. iii. 5.) mentions a fine strong he-goat, which was brought from Lybia to Sicily. The design of its transportation was, no doubt, to improve the breed. Probably Chromis, the Lybian (Idyll. i. 24.), who resided in Sicily, had migrated there to undertake the management of goats and to improve their quality.

Maximus Tyrius (Diss. xxvii.) seems to suppose, that a flock of goats could not even exist without the music of the syrinx. “If you take away,” says he, “the goatherd and his syrinx, you dissolve the flock of goats; in like manner, if you take away reason from the society of men, thus depriving them of their leader and guide, you destroy the flock, which by nature is tame, but may be injured by a bad superintendence.”

The he-goat was employed to lead the flock as the ram was among sheep. The following passages of scripture allude to this custom. “Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.” Jer. l. 8. “Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats.” Zech. x. 3. In Proverbs xxx. 31., according to the Septuagint version, we read of “the goat which leads the flock.” Julius Pollux (Lib. i. cap. 12. sect. 19.) says, that “The he-goat leads the goats.”

On a cameo in the Florentine Museum there is a representation of an ancient goatherd. The goatherd holds the syrinx in his left hand, and a young kid in his right. A goat stands beside him, and his dog appears partially concealed within a kennel formed in the rock, upon which the goatherd is seated. The herdsman is represented sitting under an aged ilex. At least this supposition accords with the language of Tibullus already quoted.

A modern authoress, who spent some of the summer months in the year 1819 among the mountains east of Rome, notices goats in the following terms as part of the stock of the farmers in that country.

“We frequently walked to one of these little farms, to meet the goats coming in at night from the mountain. As the flock crowded down the broken road leading to the fold, followed by their grotesque-looking shepherd and his rough dogs, the pet-kids crowding round their master and answering to his call, we could not help thinking of the antique manners described by the poets, and represented in the pictures of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

“The goats are the most useful domestic animals. Here no other cheese or milk is tasted. Besides, the ricotta, a kind of curd, and junkets, are made of goats’-milk, and, with bread serve many of the country people for food.”

From Athenæus we learn the superior excellence of the goats of Scyros and Naxos.

Virgil (l. c.), after mentioning the use of goats for food, goes on to show their contributions to the weaver.

Cloth’d in their shaven beards and hoary hair,
Fence of the ocean spray and nightly air,
The miserable seaman breasts the main,
And camps uninjur’d press the marshy plain.
Sotheby’s Translation.

The last line of this passage of Virgil is quoted by Columella (L. vii. 6.) in speaking of the utility of the he-goat;

For he himself is shorn “for the use of camps and to make coverings for wretched sailors.”

Virgil, moreover, has here followed Varro, who writes thus;

As the sheep yields to man wool for clothing, so the goat furnishes hair for the use of sailors, and to make ropes for military engines, and vessels for artificers. * * * * * The goats are shorn in a great part of Phrygia, because there they have long shaggy hair. Cilicia (i. e. hair-cloths), and other things of the same kind, are commonly imported from that country. The name Cilicia is said to be derived from the circumstance, that in Cilicia goats were first shorn for this purpose. De Re Rustica, L. ii. c. ii. p. 201. ed. Bip.

The language of Varro in this passage indicates, that the female goat was shorn as well as the male; and that the excellence of goats’-hair, which was used only for coarse articles, consisted in its length. Columella mentions the long bristly hair of the Cilician goats.

Aristotle says, “In Lycia goats are shorn, as sheep are in other countries.” Hist. Anim. viii. 28. This testimony of Aristotle agrees with that of his nephew and pupil, Callisthenes, who says (ap. Ælian. de Nat. Anim. xvi. 30.), “that in Lycia goats are shorn just as sheep are everywhere else; for that they have a very thick coat of excellent hair, hanging from them in locks or curls; and that this hair is twisted so as to make ropes, which are used in navigation instead of cables.”

Pliny, in his account of goats, says, “In Cilicia and about the Syrtes they are covered with hair, which admits of being shorn.” From this it may be inferred, in conformity with the testimonies already cited from Varro and Virgil, that the longest and best goats’-hair was obtained in Cilicia, and on the coast of Africa opposite to Sicily and Malta, the modern Tripoli. It is remarkable, that Virgil, in order to designate the latter district, refers to the romantic river Cinyps, which flowed through it, observing the same practice, which we have seen to be so common with the poets in regard to the countries noted for the produce of the most excellent wool. In the interior and more hilly portion of this district of Africa both sheep and goats are still reared.

The geographer Avienus asserts that goats’-hair was obtained for the purpose of being woven in the country of the Cynetæ in Spain. Isidore of Seville, in his enumeration of the different kinds of cloth (Orig. xix. 22.), uses the following expressions: “Fibrini (vestis est) tramam de fibri lanâ habens: caprina.” Thus the text now stands, evidently defective. The writer no doubt alluded to a kind of cloth called caprina, because goats’-hair was used in the manufacture of it. Beckmann (History of Inventions, Eng. Trans., vol. iv. p. 224.) proposes to read, “tramam de fibri lanâ habens, stamen de caprinâ,” i. e. “having the woof of beaver-wool, the warp of goats’-wool.” But the ancients were unacquainted with the fine wool of certain goats, and it is highly improbable, that they used goats’-hair in the case referred to, since the “Vestes Fibrinæ” were of great value, as will soon be shown, and not made in any part of coarse materials.

The cloth of goats’-hair would be suitable for sailors, both on account of their hardy mode of life, and because it was better adapted than any other kind to bear exposure to water.

Its use as clothing to express mourning and mortification will be noticed presently.

The employment of goats’-hair for military and naval purposes was far more extensive, and is proved by the following passage from the Geoponica (xviii. 9.) in addition to the former testimonies.

Προσοδόυς δίδωσιν οὐκ ὀλίγας, τὰς ἀπὸ γάλακτος καὶ τύρου καὶ (σἀρκός)· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις τὰς ἀπὸ τῆς τριχός. ἡ δὲ θρὶξ ἀναγΚαία πρός τε σχοίνους καὶ σάκκους, καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια, καὶ εἰς ναυτικὰς ὑπηρεσίας, οὔτε κοπτόμενα ῥᾳδίως, οὔτε σηπόμενα φυσικῶς, ἐὰν μὴ λίαν κατολιγωρηθῇ.

The goat yields no small profit from its milk, cheese, and (flesh). It also yields a profit from its hair, which is necessary for making ropes, sacks, and similar articles, and for nautical purposes, since it is not easily cut, and does not rot from natural causes, unless it be much neglected.—Yates’s Translation.

Cicero (in Verrem, Act i.) mentions Cilicia together with hides and sacks, and Asconius Pedianus in his Commentary on the passage (p. 95. ed. Crenii.) gives the following explanation: “Cilicia texta de pilis in castrorum usum atque nautarum.” Servius on Virgil, Georg. iii. 313. says, that these Cilicia, or cloths of goats’-hair, were used to cover the towers in sieges, because they could not be set on fire.

The reader is referred to the Poliorcetica of Lipsius, L. iii. Dial. 3. p. 158. for evidence respecting the use of hair ropes for military engines, and to L. v. Dial. ix. for passages from Thucydides, Arrian, Ammianus, Suidas, Vegetius, Curtius, and others, proving, that the besieged in cities hung Cilicia over their towers and walls to obviate the force of the various weapons hurled against them, and especially of the arrows, which carried fire.

From Exodus we learn, that the Israelites in the wilderness among their contributions to the Tabernacle gave goats’-hair, and that it was spun by women. The spun goats’-hair was probably used in part to make cords for the tent; but part of it at least was woven into the large pieces, called in the Septuagint “curtains of goats’-hair.” Such curtains, or Saga, of spun goats’-hair seem to have been commonly used for the covering of tents.

Cloths of the same kind were used for rubbing horses. The term for goats’-hair cloth in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syraic, is שק or סק, i. e. Shac, or Sac, translated ΣΑΚΚΟΣ in the Septuagint, and Saccus in the Vulgate version of the Scriptures. The Latin Sagum, appears to have had the same origin. In English we have Sack and Shag, scarcely differing from the oriental and ancient terms either in sound or sense.

Cilice, the modern French term for a hair-shirt, is immediately derived from Cilicium, the origin of which has been explained.

This kind of cloth, which was black or dark brown, the goats of Syria and Palestine being chiefly of that color even to the present day, is alluded to in the sixth chapter of Revelations, and in Is. l. 3. “I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sack-cloth their covering.” It was worn to express mourning and mortification. In Jonah we have a very remarkable case, for on this occasion blankets of goats’-hair were put on the bodies both of men and beasts, and one was worn even by the king of Nineveh himself. When Herod Agrippa was seized at Cæsarea with the mortal distemper mentioned in Acts xii. (See chap. vi. p. 93.), the common people sat down on hair-cloth according to the custom of their country, beseeching God on his behalf.—Josephus, Ant. Jud. l. xix. cap. 8. p. 872. Hudson. So according to Josephus (Ant. Jud. l. vii. cap. 7. p. 299.), David fell down upon sack-cloth of the same description and lay on the ground praying for the restoration of his son.

Hence the use of the hair-shirt by devotees in more recent times. St. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in the fourth century, in answer to the question, Whether a monk ought to have besides his night-shirt (post nocturnam tunicam) a Cilicium or any other, says, “Cilicii quidem usus habet proprium tempus. Non enim propter usus corporis, sed propter afflictionem carnis inventum est hujuscemodi indumentum, et propter humilitatem animae.” He then adds, that as the word of God forbids us to have two shirts, we ought not to have a second except for the purpose here mentioned. From this it is clear, that the Cilicium was not commonly worn by the monks, but only at particular times for the sake of humiliation.

Dr. Sibthorp (in Memoirs, edited by Walpole,) informs us, that in the present day the shepherds of Attica “shear the goats at the same time with the sheep, about April or May,” and that the hair is made into sacks, bags, and carpets, of which a considerable quantity is exported. In modern as in ancient times, the inhabitants of Greece subsist in a great measure upon goats’-milk and the cheese made from it.

The wives of the Arabian shepherds still weave goats’-hair for their tents. This hair-cloth is nearly black, and resembles that of which our modern coal-sacks are made. The Arabs also hang bags of the same cloth, containing barley, about the heads of their horses to supply them with food.

The goat, as is the case with some other quadrupeds, if confined to a country, which is hot in summer and very cold in winter, is always protected in the latter season by an additional covering of fine wool beneath its long hair. A specimen of the Syrian goat in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow shows both the hair and the wool. In Kerman and Cashmere this very fine wool is obtained by combing the goats in the spring, when it becomes loose; and, having been spun into yarn, it is used to make the beautiful shawls brought from those countries.

We will now conclude this chapter with the following interesting communication from Mr. E. Riley, being the substance of a paper lately read before the Society of Arts, London.

Mr. Riley “in 1825 and 1828 transported to that territory two flocks of the finest sheep procurable throughout Germany, my father had also long contemplated introducing there the celebrated Cashmere goat, anticipating that the fulfilment of his views would, in proving advantageous to himself, become also of ultimate benefit to the colony; in which expectation, he has been encouraged from the results that have attended the importation of the Saxon breed of sheep into their favored climates, the wools of New South Wales, and in proportion to their improvement, those also of Van Dieman’s Land being now eagerly purchased by the most intelligent manufacturers in preference to those of equal prices imported from any part of Europe.

“With this object in view, he subsequently, during an agricultural tour on the Continent, directed my attention to the Cashmere flocks of Mons. Ternaux, and in October 1828, I met this distinguished man at his seat at St. Onen (Mons. Ternaux is a great shawl manufacturer and a Peer of France,) where he preserved the elite of his herds; the animals were a mixture of various sizes and colors, from a perfect white to brown, with scarcely any stamped features as if belonging to one race exclusively; they were covered with long coarse hair, under which so small a quantity of soft short down was concealed, that the average produce of the whole collection did not exceed three ounces each; therefore, under these unfavorable circumstances, my father deferred for a time his intention of sending any of them to Australia.

“I was then advised by the Viscomte Perrault de Jotemps, to see the stock of M. Polonceau at Versailles, he having, by a happily selected cross, succeeded in increasing the quantity and value of the qualities of the Cashmere goat beyond the most sanguine anticipations, and in consequence of his enlightened taste for agricultural pursuits, was also honored with the directorship of the model farm at Grignon. He became among the first to purchase a chosen selection of the original importation of the Cashmere goat from M. Ternaux, and some time after seeing, at one of the estates of the Duchesse de Beri, an Angora buck with an extraordinary silkiness of hair, having more the character of long coarse but very soft down, he solicited permission to try the effects of a union with this fine animal and his own pure Cashmeres. The improvement even in the first drop was so rapid that it induced him to persevere, and when I first saw his small herd they were in the third generation from the males produced solely by the first cross; the unwillingness however of M. Polonceau to part with any number of them at this period (the only alienation he has made from the favorite products of his solicitude being two males and two females to the King of Wirtemberg, for the sum of 3400 francs,) caused my father again to postpone his intentions until my return from the Australasian Colonies, judging that M. Polonceau would then probably be enabled to dispose of a sufficient number, and that the constancy and properties of the race would by that time be more decidedly determined.

“On my arrival in England at the close of 1831, he again recurred to his favorite project of introducing these animals into our colonies, for which purpose I went to France with the intention of purchasing a small flock of M. Polonceau, should I find all his expectations of the Cashmere Angora breed verified, which having perfectly ascertained, I at length succeeded in persuading M. Polonceau to cede to me ten females in kid, and three males, and I fortunately was able to convey the whole in health to London, with the intention of proceeding as speedily as possible with them to Port Jackson, looking sanguinely forward not only to their rapid increase but also to crossing the common goats of the country with this valuable breed, in full expectation that they may, exclusive of their own pure down, become thus the means of forming a desirable addition to the already much prized importations from New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land. I am led to the conclusion that the latter result may be accomplished, as M. Polonceau, who has tried the experiment with the native goat of France, has obtained animals of the second cross very little inferior to the breed that has rendered his name so distinguished. He has also crossed the common goat with the pure Cashmere, but only obtained so tardy an amelioration, that it required eight or ten generations to produce a down simply equal to their inferior quantity and quality when compared to the produce of the Cashmere Angora.”

Mr. Polonceau has unremittingly persevered in the improvement so immediately effected, and has proved during the several years which have elapsed since the first experiment in the year 1822, that an entire satisfactory result in the union of the most essential qualities of down, abundance, length, fineness, lustre, and softness, was accomplished by the first cross, without any return having ensued to the individual characters of either of the primitive races, and in consequence, he has since constantly propagated the produce of that cross among themselves, careful only of preserving animals entirely white and of employing for propagation those bucks which had the down in the greatest quantity and of the finest quality with the smallest proportion of hair.

In 1826; the “Societie Royale et Centrale d’Agriculture de Paris” acquainted with the interesting result of M. Polonceau’s flock, being at that time in the third generation, and considering that the down of this new race was more valuable than that of the East, and that it was the most beautiful of filaceous materials known, as it combines the softness of Cashmere with the lustre of silk, awarded him their large gold medal at their session, 4th April, 1826, and nominated him a member of their society in the following year.

In 1827, at the exhibition of the produce of National Industry, the jury appointed to judge the merits of the objects exposed, also awarded him their medal.

At present the animals are in the twelfth generation, their health and vigor, the constancy of their qualities, and abundance of their down without any degeneration, prove that this new race may be regarded as one entirely fixed and established, requiring solely the care that is generally observed with valuable breeds; that is to say, a judicious choice of those employed for their reproduction, and in such a climate as New South Wales it may be reasonably expected that the brilliant qualities of their down may yet be improved as has been so eminently the case with the wool of the merino and Saxon sheep imported there.

M. Polonceau has goats that have yielded as many as thirty ounces of the down, in one season, and he states that the whole of his herd produce from twelve to twenty ounces; thus showing the astonishing advantages this new breed has over the uncrossed Cashmere, which never yield more than four ounces and seldom exceed two ounces each.

This gentleman also states, that, the Cashmere Angora goats, are more robust and more easily nourished than the common goat, and that they are less capricious and more easily managed in a flock; and from the experience he has already had, he finds them much more docile than even sheep. They prefer the leaves of trees, as do all other goats, but they thrive either on hay or straw, or green fodder, or in meadows; they also feed with equal facility on heaths, and on the most abrupt declivities, where the sheep would perish; they do not fear the cold, and are allowed to remain all the winter in open sheds. For the first year or two of M. P.’s experiments he thought it prudent to give them aromatic herbs, from time to time, but during the last six years he has not found it necessary. He knows not of any particular disease to which they are subject, his flock never having had any. M. P. arranges they should kid in March, but occasionally he takes two falls from those of sufficient strength during the year.

The down commences to grow in September, and developes itself progressively until the end of March, when it ceases to grow and detaches itself, unless artificially removed.

To collect the down, he waits the period when it begins to detach itself, and then the locks of down which separate from the skin with little force are taken off by hand; the down is removed from the animals every three or four days; in general it first begins to fall from the neck and shoulders, and in the following four or five days from the rest of the body; the collection is completed in the space of eight or ten days. Sometimes the entire down can be taken from the animal at one shearing, and almost in an unbroken fleece, when it begins to loosen. The shearing has the advantage of preserving more perfectly the parallelisms of the individual filaments, which much increase the facility of combing and preparing the down for manufacturing purposes.

Chapter V. Beavers-Wool.

Isidorus Hispalensis—Claudian—Beckmann—Beavers’-wool—Dispersion of Beavers through Europe—Fossil bones of Beavers.

The passage quoted from Isidore of Seville, in the last chapter, shows that the ancients made a cloth, the woof of which was of Beavers’-wool (de fibri lanâ), and which was therefore called Vestis Fibrina. By lana he must have meant the very fine wool, which, agreeably to the observation in the last paragraph, grows under the long hair of the beaver. Isidore in the same Book, observes, “Fibrinum lana est animalium, quæ fibros vocant: ipsos et castores existimant.”

The following Epigram of Claudian seems intended, as Beckmann (iv. p. 223.) supposes, to describe “a worn-out beaver dress, which had nothing more left of that valuable fur but the name.”

On a Beaver Mantle.

The shadow of its ancient name remains:
But, if no nap of beaver it retains,
A Beaver Mantle it can scarce be nam’d.
The price, however, proves its claim: it cost
Six pounds. Hence, though all lustre it has lost,
Yet, bought so dear, as beaver let it still be fam’d.

Sidonius Apollinaris calls those who used this costly apparel castorinati. Lib. v. Epist. 7. p. 313. Paris, 1599, 4to.

Gerbert, or Gilbert, surnamed the Philosopher, and afterwards Pope Silvester II., commenting on the qualities of a good Bishop according to 1 Timothy iii. 1., says in reference to the word “ornatum:”

“Quod si juxta sensum literæ tantûm respiciamus, non aliud, sacerdotes, quam amictum quæremus clariorem; verbi gratiâ, castorinas quæremus et sericas vestes: et ille se inter episcopas credet esse altiorem, qui vestem induerit clariorem. Sed S. Apostolus taliter se intelligi non vult, quia non carne, &c.”—De Informatione Episcoporum, seu De Dignitate Sacerdotali, in ed. Benedict. Opp. S. Ambrosii, tom. ii. p. 358.

“An upper garment of this cloth was worn by the Emperor Nicephorus II. at his coronation in the year 936.”—Beckmann, l. c. § 31.

“This method of manufacturing beavers’-hair,” observes Beckmann, “seems not to have been known in the time of Pliny; for, though he speaks much of the castor, and mentions pellis fibrina three times, he says nothing in regard to manufacturing the hair, or to beaver-fur.”

It seems probable, that the Greeks and Romans did not use cloth of beavers’-wool until the 4th century. In an earlier age the furs and drugs supplied by beavers were obtained from the countries to the North of the Euxine Sea. But in the period now under consideration the intercourse of the Romans with the West of Europe would open a much more extended sphere for procuring the Vestes Fibrinæ, since we have traces of the existence of beavers in almost all parts of Europe. Their appearance in Wales, Scotland, Germany, and the North of Europe generally, is attested by Giraldus Cambrensis.

Dr. Patrick Neill, in a valuable paper on this subject, has given an account of the bones of recent beavers found in Perthshire and Berwickshire. They have also been found in Cambridgeshire. We learn from the life of Wulstan, that beaver-furs, as well as those of sables, foxes, and other quadrupeds, were used by the Anglo-Saxons in very early times for lining their garments. Other modern authors speak of their occurrence in Austria, Hungary, and the North of Italy. They are still found in Sweden. Strabo informs us, that in his time they frequented the rivers of Spain.

Buffon says (Hist. Nat. tome 26. p. 98.), “There are beavers in Languedoc in the islands of the Rhone, and great numbers of them in the North of Europe.” “But as human population extends,” he observes, “beavers, like other animals, are dispersed, become solitary, fugitive, or conceal themselves in the ground: they cease to unite in bands, to engage in building or other undertakings.”

“We have been unable to ascertain,” says Cuvier, “after the most scrupulous comparisons, if the Castors or Beavers, which burrow along the Rhone, the Danube, and the Weser, are different in species from those of North America, or if they are prevented from building by the vicinity of man.” The same distinguished author in his work on Fossil Bones says, “The greater part of our European rivers having formerly supported beavers, and some of them doing so still, viz. the Gardon and the Rhone in France, the Danube in Bavaria and Austria, and several small rivers in Westphalia and Saxony, we cannot be surprised to find their hones preserved in our mosses, or turbaries.” He then mentions instances of the heads and teeth of beavers, in the valley of the Somme in Picardy, in the valley of Tonnis-stein near Andermach, and at Urdingen on the Rhine in Rhenish Prussia.

Chapter VI. Camels-Wool and Camels-Hair.

Camels’-wool and Camels’-hair—Ctesias’ account—Testimony of modern travellers—Arab tent of Camels’-hair—Fine cloths still made of Camels’-wool—The use of hair of various animals in the manufacture of beautiful stuffs by the ancient Mexicans—Hair used by the Candian women in the manufacture of broidered stuffs—Broidered stuffs of the negresses of Senegal—Their great beauty.

We are informed by Ctesias, in a fragment of the 10th Book of his Persic History, that there were camels in a part of Persia, whose hair, soft as Milesian fleeces, was used to make garments for the priests and the other potentates.

John the Baptist wore a garment of camels’-hair; but this must be supposed to have been coarse. (Matt. iii. 4., Mark i. 6.). This passage of scripture is illustrated by Harmer in the following observation:

“This hair, Sir J. Chardin tells us (in his MS. note on 1 Sam. xxv. 4.) is not shorn from the camels like wool from sheep, but they pull off this woolly hair, which the camels are disposed to cast off; as many other creatures, it is well known, change their coats yearly. This hair is made into cloth now. Chardin assures us the modern dervishes wear such garments.”

Campbell, the poet, mentions a tent of camels’-hair cloth, which he saw at an Arab encampment between Oran and Mascara in the kingdom of Algiers. It was 25 feet in diameter and very lofty. (Letters from the South, 1837, vol. ii. p. 212.) He also mentions (vol. i. p. 161.) that the Kabyles or Berbers, who live in the vicinity of Algiers, and are descended from the original occupants of the country, dwell in “tents of camels’-hair.” We are informed that the Chinese make carpets of the same material. Coverlets of goats’ or camels’-hair are used by the soldiers in Turkey to sleep under. “The Circassians, when marching, or on a journey, always add to their other garments a cloak made from camel or goats’-hair, with a hood, which completely envelopes the whole person. It is impenetrable by rain; and it forms their bed at night, and protects them from the scorching sun by day.”

Fortunatus, in his life of St. Martin (l. iv.), describes a garment of such cloth; but it may be doubted whether he took his description from actual knowledge of the use of it, or only from the account in Matthew of the dress of John the Baptist already quoted.

Camels’-hair of annual growth would vary in fineness according to circumstances, and might be used either for the coarse raiment of prophets and dervises, or for the costly shawls, to which Ctesias alludes. Fine wool, adapted to the latter purpose, might also grow, as in the goat and beaver, beneath the long hair of the camel. It has been doubted whether cloth so fine and beautiful as Ctesias asserts, could possibly be obtained from camels. The following accounts by modern travellers illustrate and justify the statement of the suspected ancient.

Marco Polo, who travelled in the 13th century, in his account of the city of Kalaka, which was in the province of Tangut and subject to the Great Kahn, says, “In this city they manufacture beautiful camelots, the finest known in the world, of the hair of camels and likewise of fine wool.” According to Pallas, (Travels, vol. ii. § 8.,) “From the hair of the camel the Tartar women in the plains of the Crimea manufacture a narrow cloth, which is used in its natural color, and is extremely warm, soft, and light.” According to Prosper Alpinus, (Hist. Nat. Ægypti, l. iv. c. 7. p. 225.) the Egyptians manufactured from the hair of their camels not only coarse cloth for their tents, but other kinds so fine as to be worn not only by princes but even by the senators of Venice.

Elphinstone, in his account of Cabul (p. 295.), mentions, that “Oormuck, a fine cloth made of camels’-wool,” is among the articles imported into Cabul from the Bokhara country. This country lies North of the Oxus, and East of the Southern extremity of the Caspian Sea, and is probably the country, to which Ctesias more especially referred. A still more recent authority is that of Moorcroft, who informs us, that “Cloth is now made from the wool of the wild camels of Khoten in Chinese Tartary,” and that “at Astrakhan a fine cloth is manufactured from the wool of the camel foal of the first year.”