these representations of the mode of manufacturing Broom-bark.
The Spartum, of which he speaks, is “_the rush of a dry soil_,” a
description far more applicable to the young twigs of the Spanish Broom
than to the grassy stems of the Stipa Tenacissima, or indeed to any
other plant. His Spartum was used for making fires and for giving light
(_hinc ignes facesque_), purposes for which the Stipa Tenacissima is
not at all adapted, but to both of which the stems and twigs of the
Spanish Broom are applied. The tender tops of Pliny’s Spartum served
as food for animals. According to Trombelli sheep and goats feed upon
the Spanish Broom in Italy; but we cannot find that this is the case
with the Stipa Tenacissima. Pliny’s Spartum, after being steeped in
water, was beaten in order to be made useful (_Hoc autem tunditur, ut
fiat utile_); and this process was quite necessary in preparing the
twigs of Spanish Broom, whereas the Stipa Tenacissima is most commonly
manufactured without going through any such process. Clusius indeed
states (_l. c._) that by macerating it in water like flax, and then
drying and beating it, the Spaniards of Valencia make a kind of shoes,
which they call _Alpergates_, also cords, and other finer articles;
but, at the same time, he says, that it is made into mats, baskets,
ropes, and cables, merely by being dried, platted, and twisted, without
any other operation. The same account is given by Townsend, who visited
the country as late as 1787, and who further states, that “the esparto
rush” had latterly “been spun into fine thread for the purpose of
making cloth[215].” It seems, however, that this had only been done as
an experiment, whereas the accounts which have been quoted show, that
the manufacture of cloth from broom-bark had been long established
in Albania, Italy, and the South of France. In the latter district
more especially, the entire dependence of the people on this material
as a substitute for flax and hemp, and the primitive mode in which
this domestic manufacture was carried on in a retired and mountainous
region, seem to indicate the high antiquity of the practice. All the
other authors, who mention the use of the Stipa Tenacissima, certainly
give little countenance to the idea of its fitness to supply a thread
for making cloth. Mr. Carter, adopting the common opinion that the
Spartum of Pliny is the Stipa Tenacissima, observes, that “at present
the meanest Spaniard would think clothing made from this grass very
rough and uncomfortable[216].” We shall only quote one other authority,
that of Löfling, the favorite pupil of Linnæus, who became botanist
to the King of Spain, and whose Iter Hispanicum (_Stockholm_, 1758.)
relates particularly to the plants of that country. He follows Clusius
in supposing the Spartum of Pliny to be the Stipa Tenacissima of
Linnæus. He mentions, that its stem is two or three feet high, with
leaves so long, thin, tough, and convoluted, that they are admirably
adapted for the purposes to which they are applied. He adds, “Hispanis
nominatur Esparto. Usus hujus frequentissimus per universam Hispaniam
ad storeas ob pavimenta lateritia per hyemem: ad funes crassiores pro
navibus ad que corbes et alia utensilia pro transportandis fructibus.”
(_p._ 119.)
[215] Journey through Spain, vol. iii. p. 129, 130.
[216] Carter’s Journey, vol. ii. p. 414, 415.
Pliny’s remark, that the Spartum, of which he speaks, could not be
sown (_quæ non queat seri_), is not true of the Spanish Broom; but this
is of little importance in the present inquiry, because it is coupled
with the remark, that nothing else could be sown in the same situation
(_nec aliud ibi seri aut nasci potest_); a remark, which is totally
unfounded in fact. The Spanish Broom would unquestionably be propagated
by its seed, which is very abundant.
From these facts, the reader will have no difficulty in forming his
decision. Notwithstanding the respect due to the authority of Clusius,
into which that of all the subsequent writers seems to resolve itself,
it appears to us that the evidence preponderates against the use of
Stipa Tenacissima for making cloth in ancient times, and points to the
conclusion, that the coarse garments, to which Pliny alludes, were
fabricated from the fibrous rind of Spartium Junceum.
One of the most interesting facts in the geography of plants is the
frequent substitution in one country, of a plant of a certain natural
order for another of the same natural order in another country. The
Indians have a plant, bearing a very close and striking resemblance
to the Spartium Junceum, which they employ just as the natives of Bas
Languedoc employ that plant. We refer to the Crotalaria Juncea, called
by the natives Goni, Danapu, or Shanapu, and by us the Sun-plant, or
Indian Hemp. From the bark are made all kinds of ropes, packing-cloths,
sacks, nets, &c. In order to improve the fibre, the plants are sown as
close as possible and thus draw up to the height of about ten feet.
According to Dr. Francis Buchanan, the plant thrives best on a poor
sandy soil, and requires to be abundantly watered. After being cut
down it is spread out to the sun and dried. The seed is beaten out by
striking the pods with a stick. After this the stems are tied up in
large bundles, about twelve feet in circumference, and are preserved
in stacks or under sheds. When wanted, the stems are macerated during
six or eight days. They are known to be ready, when the bark separates
easily from the pith. “The plant is then taken out of the water,
and a man, taking it up by handfuls, beats them on the ground, and
occasionally washes them until they be clean; and at the same time
picks out with his hand the remainder of the pith, until nothing except
the bark be left. This is then dried, and being taken up by handfuls,
is beaten with a stick to separate and clean the fibres. The hemp is
then completely ready, and is spun into thread on a spindle, both by
the men and women. The men alone weave it, and perform this labor in
the open air with a very rude loom.” The fabric made from it is a
coarse, but very strong sack-cloth.
“The fibres, when prepared,” says Ironside, “are so similar to hemp,
that Europeans generally suppose them to be the produce of the same
plant[217].”
[217] Account of the culture and uses of the Son-or Sun-plant of
Hindostan by Ironside, in the Phil. Trans., vol. lxiv.: Dr. F.
Buchanan’s Journey, vol. i. 226, 227, 291.; vol. ii. 227, 235.:
Wissett on Hemp, passim.: Roxburgh’s Flora Indica, vol. iii. p.
259-263.
The genus _Lupinus_ (_the Lupin_), belonging to the same natural
order as Spartium and Crotalaria, might probably afford materials
of the same kind. Mr. Strange (_Lettera_, &c. p. 70.) mentions the
filamentous substance of the Lupin _as adapted for making paper_.
Theophrastus[218] (Hist. Pl. viii. 13.) gives the following account
of a bulbous plant, called by him Βολβὸς ἐριοφόρος, the root of which
supplied materials for weaving:--“It grows in _bays_, and has the wool
under the first coats of the bulb so as to be between the inner eatable
part and the outer. Socks and other garments are woven from it. Hence
this kind is woolly, and not hairy, like that in India.”
[218] “Theophrastus relates, that there is a kind of bulb growing
about the banks of rivers, and that between its outer rind and the
part of it which is eaten there is a woolly substance, out of which
they make certain kinds of socks and cloths. But in the copies
which I have found, he neither mentions in what country this is
done, nor anything else with greater exactness, except that the
bulb is called _eriophoros_; nor does he make any mention at all of
spartum, although he examined the whole subject with great care 390
years before my time, as I have observed in another place (Viz.,
lib. xv. 1.), from which circumstance it appears, that spartum came
into use since that time.”
It is difficult to determine what plant is meant, though the
description seems accurate and scientific. Billerbeck absurdly supposes
it to be cotton-grass[219]. By former botanists, men of great eminence,
it was supposed to be Scilla Hyacinthoides. Sprengel objects, that
this species does not grow in Greece[220]. Sir James Smith however
(_article_ SCILLA in _Rees’s Cyclop._) represents it as
growing in Madeira, Portugal, and the Levant. If this account be true,
Theophrastus may have been acquainted with it. In another article,
Eriophorus, Sir J. Smith doubts whether either Scilla Hyacinthoides or
any other bulb produces wool of such quality and in such quantity as
to answer the description of Theophrastus. But, we learn from other
well-informed botanists, that various bulbs have under the outermost
coats a copious tissue of tough fibres, _fully sufficient_ to be
employed in _weaving_. This is particularly the case with the genera
_Amaryllis_, Crinum, and _Pancratium_, as well as _Scilla_. The fibrous
coats serve as a protection to the interior and more vital parts of the
bulb.
[219] Flora Classica, p. 20.
[220] German translation of Theophrastus, Notes, vol. ii. p. 283.
Hoffmansegg and Link, who travelled in Portugal, in the description of
Scilla Hyacinthoides, say, “Bulbus tomento viscoso tectus[221].”
[221] Annals of Botany, by König and Sims, Lond. 1805, vol. i. 101.
Sonnini says of the Scilla Maritima, “The Greeks of the Archipelago
call it Kourvara-skilla, _kourvara_ signifying properly a ‘tuft of
thread’ (_peloton de fil_[222]).” Does this refer to the fibres
mentioned by Theophrastus? The _size_ of this bulb, which is the common
squill, used in pharmacy, seems to favor this supposition. It is often
as large as a man’s head[223]. Hoffmansegg and Link[224] say it grows
abundantly on barren hills in Spain and Portugal; but add, “The name
_maritima_ is not quite proper: for the plant is seldom met with near
the sea-shore, and sometimes very remote from it.” On the other hand,
it must have been so called, because it was reported by others to
grow on the sea-shore; and Sir James Smith (_in Rees’s Cyclopedia_)
expressly states, that it grows on “sandy shores.” Redouté says the
same.
[222] Voyage en Grèce, tom. i. ch. 14. p. 295.
[223] “Bulbus ovatus, tunicatus, _crassitie ferè capitis humani_.”
Desfontaines’ Flora Atlantica, tom. i. p. 297.
[224] An. of Bot. vol. i. p. 101.
From the account of Pancratium by Sir James Edward Smith (_in Rees’s
Cyclop._), we learn that two species grow in Greece, viz. P. Maritimum
and Illyricum.
The remarks now offered appear to prove, that there certainly may
have been a bulb, such as Theophrastus describes, though we have not
sufficient information to decide its genus and species. It may have
been the Scilla Maritima.
It is to be observed, that he refers also to an Indian bulb, having
similar properties. Perhaps he alluded to some plant of a kind similar
to Agave Vivipara, the leaves of which are extensively used in India
for making cordage[225].
[225] Dr. F. Buchanan’s Journey in Mysore, &c. i. p. 36.
We cannot better conclude this part of the subject, than by giving
the following interesting communication of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of
Northampton, Mass., to the Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, a gentleman who has,
in our opinion, rendered most valuable services, not only to the people
of the United States, but to the world at large, since his appointment
to the office of Commissioner of Patents.
_Northampton, Hampshire County, Mass._
“Dear Sir: The favorable notice of silk culture in document No. 109,
from the Patent Office report of February, 1843, is my apology for
presenting the enclosed samples of _paper_, made of mulberry foliage
and bark. Unfortunately, the _external cuticle_ of the bark had not
been removed; producing the spots, but does not injure the paper for
the use intended, which was for the purpose of depositing silk-worms’
eggs upon something dark; and this being _unbleached_, is considered
adapted to the habits of the silk-worm, and is now in successful
experiment.
“The four samples are all of one batch; the darkest, having more of
the outside cuticle, was most buoyant, rose to the top and came off
first.
“A quantity of genuine Canton foliage, which retains its verdure in
greater perfection and later than any other mulberry, is gathered,
dried, and sent to the mill for making paper, bleached, without spots,
fit for cotton paper, as hoped; and, if successful, I shall take
pleasure in sending you a sample, to be preserved with the enclosed.
“I began, some ten or twelve years since, to bring silk culture
into notice among the members of the Hampshire Agricultural Society,
believing that if we tried the right kind of trees, (such as used in
China,) we could raise silk, yet could not afford to pay $1 per tree,
as then asked for multicaulis; not reflecting how easily they could
be propagated by cuttings and layers. Under this view of the subject,
I wrote to the Rev. E. C. Bridgman, missionary at Canton, China, a
native of Hampshire county, with the request that he would procure and
forward me some _mulberry seed_ of the most approved kind for growing
in China, for the use of members of the agricultural society. He
promptly attended to the request; the seed was forwarded and sown in
the spring of 1834 or 1835. It grew finely, and developed a splendid
leaf.
“About two years since, while Dr. Parker, with a Chinaman, was here on
a visit, on being shown the Canton foliage, it was readily recognized.
As the trees had grown here very luxuriantly, and developed a larger
leaf than in China, Dr. Parker suggested that our soil might be more
congenial to the plant than even China, its native soil.
“Soon after receiving the seed from Canton, a friend sent me another
parcel from the South of Asia, with high commendations, that if it
would grow here, it would be of essential benefit to the United States
for raising silk. It succeeded well, and is more hardy than the white
mulberry, very productive in small branches, and a good-sized leaf.
I named the latter _Asiatic Canton_. These two kinds are highly
approved of for feeding silk-worms--the Canton for leaf-feeding, and
the Asiatic for branch feeding. I have, however, almost every variety
which was cultivated during the mulberry speculation--covering,
altogether, some ten or twelve acres, besides a large number of young
Canton and Asiatic seedlings, of this year’s sowing, from seed of my
own raising, to enlarge the plantations.
“A few days since, the Rev. William Richards, of the Sandwich
Islands, with the young prince, called on me. At a former visit, I
had supplied him with Canton mulberry-seed, silk-worms’ eggs, and dry
mulberry foliage to use in case the eggs should hatch on the passage;
but this they did not do until his arrival home. About the same time,
other eggs had been received there from China; but the cocoons raised
from them were not _one quarter_ as large as the American, and must
have required some 10,000 to 12,000 to make a pound of silk, while in
America 2,400 to 3,000 would make a pound.
“Mr. Titcomb, also a silk-grower in one of the islands, having the
American and Chinese, crossed them: but the crossing produced cocoons
so small as to require from 5,000 to 6,000 to make a pound of silk,
while not over 3,000 of the American would be required to do the same
thing(!).
“Mr. Richards was shown several _pamphlets_, _newspapers_, _cap_ and
_writing paper_, supposed to have been made of mulberry bark. He
said rags were _not_ used in India[226], China, or the islands, for
making paper, but they always make it of some vegetable leaf; that the
bark was too valuable for that, and was used to make _fabrics_. (See
Chapters XI. and XII. of this Part. Also Appendix A.)
“We, as Americans, have the appropriate soil and climate for the
Canton and Asiatic mulberry, with the pea-nut variety of worms, which,
being managed with due care and attention, together with the skill,
ingenuity, and perseverance of Americans--and, in addition, and could
we have the aid of our country to encourage new beginners--we might
hope to compete with any nation in the production of silk, their cheap
labor and cheap living to the contrary notwithstanding. There is
abundant evidence that worms fed exclusively on the Canton mulberry
have been larger, and produced heavier cocoons, by one-third in size
of worms and weight of cocoons, than by other feed. I have supplied an
order of the peanut variety of eggs, to go to Guatemala; and Canton
seed, of my own raising, to go to Rio; and now have an order for a
number of the genuine Canton mulberry trees, roots, or cuttings,
to go to Lima, where the applicant went on business, a few years
since, taking with him a few multicaules, at $2 each--now multiplied
to 50,000; who, without any practical knowledge of raising trees,
reeling and manufacturing silk, or having seen a silk-worm or reel
until he introduced them in 1843, has now presented me with beautiful
samples of _floss cocoons, reeled and sewing silk_, done by ladies
as a diversion, without any assistance, and very little instruction
from him. The silk is of good quality. Samples had been sent by a
mercantile house in Lima to England, for an opinion of the quality;
but no return had been received when he came away. He has come to this
place with a native Spaniard, to obtain more perfect information in
all the branches of reeling, twisting, coloring(!), &c.; to procure
machinery, with a view of enlarging operations, so that he might turn
off twenty-five pounds per day of sewings, cords, braids, &c. He
represents the climate and soil as adapted to the culture of silk, and
could feed every month in the year; that the necessaries of living
are procured with but little labor; that the laboring population are
indolent, _the wealthy classes too proud to labor_. He feels confident
of success, and that he can introduce habits of industry by silk
culture, that would counteract their natural indolence; and he will
inform me of his success in due time, that may be more interesting
than speculations upon what he intends doing. He has engaged several
to perfect themselves in reeling, &c., to accompany him when he
returns to Lima with his machinery. He has become so satisfied with
the superiority of the genuine Canton mulberry, that he has engaged to
take it on with him for propagation and use.
“I have letters from widely different locations, rendering favorable
accounts of this year’s success in growing silk, and in corroboration
of the prevalent opinion _that the silk cause will finally prevail_. I
have several letters on this subject--one from a gentleman presiding
over one of our most eminent literary institutions, under date of
June, 1844. Discoursing about the culture of silk, he writes as
follows:
“‘If this earnest waking up to a scientific and practical
consideration of the subject be not soon crowned with signal success,
it will not be for want of enterprize or skill in our countrymen, but
merely from the high price of labor here, compared with the scanty
wages given in other silk-growing countries. Even this consideration,
though it may _retard_ for a while the complete success of this
department of productive industry, will not prevent its ultimate
_triumph_.’
“Another gentleman, under date of August, 1844, writes from the far
West, ‘that the soil and climate of the Western and South-western
States are admirably suited to the growth of the mulberry and raising
silk-worms,’ and that ‘eventually the two great staples of the
Western and South-western States will be _silk_ and _wool_.’ It is
the opinion of competent skilful silk manufacturers, who have made
critical experiments upon the _Pongee-silk_ (so called) of foreign
make, by tests which they consider satisfactory and decisive, that
it is _only a vegetable production_, and that the material was never
operated upon _by the silk-worm_(?). There can be no reasonable doubt
about the ultimate success of silk-culture in some _future_ years;
but to accelerate that desirable event, which may constitute an
important American staple for revenue (which might not only enrich the
Government, but reward the labor of personal enterprize), a bounty
is deemed necessary to stimulate and encourage that portion of the
agricultural population whose circumstances or health disqualifies
them for the more laborious exercises of the fields, to commence
operations upon a new and untried crop. Our extensive imports of raw
and manufactured silks are encouraged by us as consumers, instead of
being producers. We now contribute to support foreign enterprize and
industry, to produce the article of silk, which we might, with proper
encouragement, raise ourselves, not only for our own consumption, but
for exportation.”
Very respectfully, yours, &c.
Daniel Stebbins.
Henry L. Ellsworth, Esq.,
Commissioner of Patents.
[226] Abdollatiph who visited Egypt A. D. 1200, informs us (Chapter
iv. p. 188 of Silvestre de Sacy’s French translation, p. 221 of
Wahl’s German translation.), “_that the cloth, rags, &c. found in
the catacombs, and used to envelope the mummies, was made into
garments, or sold to the scribes to make paper for shop-keepers_.”
This cloth is proved to be linen (See Part IV. p. 365), and the
passage of Abdollatiph may be considered as decisive proof, which
however has never been produced as such, of the manufacture of
linen paper as early as the year 1200. Professor Tychsen in
his learned and curious dissertation on the use of paper from
Papyrus (published in the _Commentationes Reg. Soc. Gottingensis
Recentiores_, vol. iv. A. D. 1820), has brought abundant
testimonies to prove that _Egypt supplied all Europe with this kind
of paper until towards the end of the eleventh century_. The use
of it was then abandoned, cotton paper being employed instead. The
Arabs in consequence of their conquests in Bucharia, had learnt
the art of making _cotton paper_ about the year 704, and through
them or the Saracens it was introduced into Europe in the _eleventh
century_. Another fact should not be lost sight of, namely, “that
most of the old MSS. in Arabic and other oriental languages are
written on this sort of paper,” and that it was first introduced
into Europe by the Saracens of Spain. (For further proof, see
Appendix A. Also Part IV. already referred to.)
The amount of silk imported into the United States annually, nearly
equals that of linen and woollen together, and is equal to one half of
all other fabrics combined. Is it not then, an important consideration,
that this expenditure be saved to the nation?
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_[227].” 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[228]. Hence it appears, that they were
too rude and ignorant to have acquired the arts of _spinning_ and
_weaving_.
[227] Strabo, l. xi. cap. 8. p. 486. ed. Siebenkees.
[228] Justin, l. ii. cap. 2.
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[229].” 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[230]. 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.
[229] Strabo, l. xi. cap. 8. p. 567.
[230] See Ancient Universal History, vol. vi. plates 6. 8.
The superior excellence of the rich plains of Mesopotamia for
the pasture of sheep as well as oxen, is attested by Dionysius
Periegetes[231], 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.)
[231] Ὅσση δ’ Εὐφρήτου, &c. l. 992-996.
In English,
“As for the land, which lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris,
called the land _Between the Rivers_, the herdsman would not
contemn its pastures, nor he who tends flocks folded in the fields,
and honors with his syrinx Pan who has horny hoofs.”
From Ezekiel we learn, that Damascus supplied the Tyrians with
wool[232], 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.)[233]. Aristotle, referring to the sheep of Syria,
mentions a variety with tails, which were a cubit broad[234]; and Pliny
in addition to this circumstance asserts generally the abundance of
the Syrian wool[235]. 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.
[232] “Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy
making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon,
and _white_ wool. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied
in thy fairs: _bright_ iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy
market. Dedan was thy merchant in _precious clothes for chariots_.
Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in
_lambs_, and _rams_, and _goats_: in these were they thy merchants.
The merchants of Shebah and Raamah, they were thy merchants:
they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with
all precious stones, and gold. Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the
merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants. These
were thy merchants in all sorts of things, _in blue clothes_, and
_broidered work_, and _in chests of rich apparel_, bound with
cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.”--_Ezekiel_ xxvii.
18-24.
[233] “Et lana præcipua, quod usque hodie cernimus.”
[234] Hist. Animalium, l. viii. cap. 28.
[235] Plinii Hist. Nat. l. viii. c. 75. ed. Bipont. See Appendix A.
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[236].”
[236] Diod. Sic. l. xix. 94. p. 722. ed. Steph.
Strabo (l. xvi. cap. 4. p. 460. ed. Siebenkees.), speaking
apparently of another division of the Nebatæi, says they have large
oxen, camels, and white sheep.
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[237].
[237] The passages of ancient authors relating to this variety, with
various confirmations from modern travellers, are quoted with his
usual accuracy by Bochart, Hieroz. l. ii. cap. 45. p. 494-497. Ed.
Leusden. Lug. Bat. 1692.
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[238].”
[238] Gen. xlvi. 28.--xlvii. 6. Compare Josephus, Ant. ii. 7. 5.
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[239]. 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.
[239] It should be observed, that the Hebrew word translated _sheep_ in
Ex. ix. 3. included goats.
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[240] 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[241].
[240] Hist. Nat. l. viii. 73. See Appendix A.
[241] De Pallio, c. 3.
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[242]. 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[243]. 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[244]. 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.
[242] Strabo, l. xvii. c. 1. § 3. p. 476, 477. ed. Siebenkees.
[243] Cap. 2. § 1. 3. p. 621. 626. Strabo’s account is illustrated and
confirmed by the traveller, Dr. Shaw, who describes a variety of
sheep in the interior of Africa with “fleeces as coarse and hairy
as those of the goat.”--Travels in Barbary, part iii. chap. 2. § 1.
[244] Callixenus Rhodius, apud Athenæum, l. v. p. 201. ed. Casaub.
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[245]. 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[246].
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._
[245] Aristot. Problem. cap. x. sec. 46.
[246] Odyss. iv. 85-89.
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[247].
[247] Jo. Tzetzes, Chiliad. x. 348-350, in Lectii Corp. Poetarum
Græcorum.
“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.[248]
“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.’”
[248] Ib. 378-381.
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.)[249], 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[250]. 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.
[249] See Appendix A.
[250] Heeren, Handbuch, iii. 2. 2. p. 185. Mannert, Geographie, 6. 3.
p. 253, &c.
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_[251].” With
respect to Dioscurias, we are informed, that “the memory of its ancient
name is still preserved in the present appellation of Iskouriah[252].”
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[253].
[251] Travels in Circassia, &c. in 1835, by Edmund Spencer, Esq., vol.
ii. p. 355. Julius von Klaproth, in the work quoted below, says,
(p. 582.), that the wealth of the Circassians consists principally
in their sheep, from whose wool the women make coarse cloth and
felt. In the summer they drive their sheep into the mountains, but
feed them under cover in winter, and at other times in the plains.
[252] Dr. Goodenough, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,
vol. i. p. 110. See also Major Rennell’s Map of Western Asia.
[253] Chardin’s Travels, vol i. p. 77. 108. of the English Translation.
London, 1686.
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[254]. 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_[255], 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.
[254] Reise in den Caucasus, cap. 24. The author thus spells the name
in German characters, _Ckaratschai_. Father Lamberti, a missionary
from the Society of the Propaganda at Naples, who remained twenty
years in that part of Asia in the seventeenth century, calls them
“_i Caraccioli_,” in which name we observe the addition of an
Italian termination. See his Relatione della Colchide, hoggi delta
Mengrelia, Napoli, 1654, cap. 28. p. 196.
[255] The origin of the English _shawl_.
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[256].
[256] Souchom-Kalé is only twelve miles from _Iscuria_, a single
promontory intervening between the bay and river of the former
harbor and those of the latter. See Spencer’s Travels, vol. i. p.
295-297, and his Map at p. 209.
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[257]. 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.
[257] Hist. Anim. viii. 28.
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[258]. 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.
[258] See Bochart’s Hierozoïcon, l. ii. cap. 44. De Gregum Pastoribus.
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[259]: the river
Marsyas, famed for his contest with Apollo, was among the Phrygian
mountains[260].
[259] Hyginus, Fab. 165.
[260] It appears not impossible, that, when Theocritus in Idyll. iii.
46, represents Adonis as “tending flocks upon the mountains,” he
may have referred to the mountains of Phrygia or of Ionia. For in
another Idyll. (i. 105-110,) he seems to connect the love of Venus
for Adonis with her love for Anchises, as if the scene of both were
in the same region. Among the various accounts of Adonis, one makes
him the offspring of Smyrna; and Cinyras, _the father of Adonis,
is said to have founded the city of Smyrna in Ionia, calling it by
that name after his daughter_. (Hyginus, Fab. 58 and 275.) This
supposition accounts most satisfactorily for the production of the
beautiful elegy on the death of Adonis by Bion, who was a native of
Smyrna.
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[261].” 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.
[261] Lib. xii. c. 7, § 3.
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[262]:” and
Varro asserts, that in his time there were many flocks of wild sheep in
Phrygia[263].
[262] Aves, 492.
[263] De Re Rusticâ, ii. 1.
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[264]. 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.
[264] Ctesiæ fragmenta, a Bähr, p. 224.
The Sybarites wore _shawls_ of Milesian wool[265]. 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[266]. Eustathius says, the “Milesian
_carpets_[267]” 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.
[265] Timæus apud Athenæum, xii. p. 519. B.
[266] De Incred. § 19.
[267] In Dionysium, v. 823.
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[268].
[268] Problem. cap. x. sec. 46.
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[269].” It was celebrated for a temple of
Minerva, who was called from it _Itonis_, or _Itonia_[270], and whose
worship was transferred from hence to Bœotia.
[269] Il. B. 696.
[270] Strabo, l. ix. c. 2. § 29. p. 458; and c. 5. § 14. p. 614. ed.
Siebenkees. Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. i. 551; and Schol. ad locum.
Alcæi Reliquiæ, a Maththiæ, No. 54.
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[271].
[271] Athen. Deip. l. i. p. 27. D.
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[272]. 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.
[272] This transaction is represented in Plate VIII. Fig. 5.
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[273] and Ottfried Müller[274] 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[275]. 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[276].” 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[277].
[273] Corpus Inscrip. Græcar., vol. i. p. 740.
[274] Orchomenos, p. 471.
[275] Vitruvius, viii. 3. p. 218. ed. Schneider. See also Dodwell’s
Tour, vol. i. p. 242. It was imagined that the water of the Melas
rendered the wool black, and that of the Cephisos white.
Dr. Sibthorp, in crossing the plain of Bœotia near Platæa in
November A. D. 1794, says, “Flocks of sheep, whose fleeces
were of remarkable blackness, were feeding in the plain; the
breed was considerably superior in beauty and size to that of
Attica.”--Walpole’s Memoirs on Eur. and As. Turkey, p. 65.
[276] Contra Everg. et Mnesid. p. 1155. ed. Reiske.
[277] Apud Non. Marcellum.
We learn from Theocritus, that the shepherds of Acharnæ, one of the
Attic demi, excelled in playing on the pipe[278].
[278] Idyll. vii. 71.
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[279]. 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_[280].
[279] Paus. i. 44. 4.
[280] Diog. Laert. vi. 41. Æliani Var. Hist. xii. 56.
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[281].” 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.[282].
[281] Virg. Buc. x. 26. and Georg. iii. 385. See also Propert. i. 17.
[282] Hist. d’Herodote, par Larcher, tome vii. p. 359, 582.
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[283], 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.
[283] Philostrati Senioris Imag. l. ii. c. 11.
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[284], 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.
[284] L. viii. c. 36. 5. and c. 37. 8.
Herodotus gives a very curious account of the introduction of the
worship of Pan into Attica[285]. 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[286].
[285] Lib. vi. c. 105.
[286] Eurip. Jon. 492-504. 937. Paus. i. 28. 4. Stuart’s Ant. of
Athens. Hobhouse’s Travels, p. 336. Dodwell’s Tour, vol. i. p. 304.
In Sir R. Worsley’s collection of Antiques at Appledurcombe in
the Isle of Wight is a bas-relief, in which Pan is reclining as
if after the chase near the mouth of this cave. He holds the
syrinx in the left hand, a drinking-horn in the right. A train of
worshippers are conducting a ram to the altar within the cave.
See Museum Worsleianum, Lon. 1794. plate 9. In the vestibule of
the University Library at Cambridge is a mutilated statue of Pan
clothed in a goat-skin and holding the syrinx in his left hand.
This statue was discovered near the same cave, and from its style,
(the Æginetic,) may be supposed to have been carved soon after the
battle of Marathon. See Dr. E. D. Clarke s Greek Marbles, p. 9. No.
xi. Wilkins’s Magna Græcia, p. 71, and Dodwell’s Tour, vol. i. p.
304.
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[287].
[287] Paus. l. i. 32. 6. Dodwell’s Tour, vol. ii. p. 162. Mapat, p. 330
of Mem. on Eur. and As. Turkey, edited by Walpole.
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[288].
[288] L. ix. cap. 1. § 21. It was consecrated to the Nymphs as well
as to Pan, this association of the Nymphs with that deity being
universally practised. Dodwell’s Tour, vol. i. p. 550-555. “The
countryman and shepherd, as well as the sportsman, has often
repaired, it is likely, to this cave, to render the deities
propitious by sacrificing a she-goat or lamb, by gifts of cakes or
fruit, and by libations of milk, oil, and honey; simply believing,
that this attention was pleasing to them, _that they were present
though unseen_, and partook without diminishing the offering; their
appetites as well as passions, caprices, and employments resembling
the human. At noon-day the pipe was silent on the mountains, _lest
it might happen to awake Pan, then reposing after the exercise of
hunting, tired and peevish_.” Chandler’s Travels in Greece, c. 32.
p. 155.
The Corycian cave on Mount Parnassus was dedicated by the surrounding
inhabitants to Pan and to the Nymphs[289]. 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[290], as we may presume, out of
respect to the Arcadians, who resorted to the Olympic games. Pindar
states[291], 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[292].
O Pan, Arcadia’s sovereign lord,
Dancing and singing with the nymphs;
Smile, Pan, responsive to my joys,
O shout, delighted with my songs.
[289] Paus. l. x. 32. 5. Strabo, l. ix. cap. 3. § 1. p. 488. ed.
Siebenkees Raikes’s Journal in Memoirs edited by Walpole, p.
311-315.
[290] Paus. l. v. c. 15. § 4.
[291] Pyth. iii. 137-139.
[292] Athenæus, l. xv. 50. 1547. ed. Dindorf. Pindari Op. a Böckh. ii.
2. p. 592. Brunck, Analecta, vol. i. p. 156; and vol. iii. Lect. et
Emend. p. 27.
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[293].
[293] Dodwell’s Tour, vol. ii. p. 21, 22.
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[294]
and to Faunus in Italy[295], 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[296].
[294] Longi Pastor. l. ii. c. 17. In an epigram by Leonidas of Tarentum
(No. xxx. Brunckii Analecta, tom. i. p. 228.) Bito, an aged
Arcadian, dedicates offerings to Pan, to Bacchus, and to the
Nymphs. To Pan he devotes a kid.
[295] Ovid. Fasti, ii. See also Hor. Od. l. i. 4. v. ii.
[296] Dionys. Halicarn. Hist. Rom. l. i. p. 20, 21, ed. R. Steph. Paris
1546. Strabon l. v. cap. iii. § 3. Aur. Victor, Origo Gentis
Romanæ. Livii l. i. c. 5. Pausanias, viii. 43. 2. Virg. Æn. viii.
51-54. 342-344. Heyne’s Excursus ad loc. Ovidii Fasti, ii. 268-452.
v. 88, &c.
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[297]. 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[298]. 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_[299]. 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[300], 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.
[297] J. H. Voss, Virgil’s Ländliche Gedichte, tom. ii. p. 353.
[298] Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterthumskunde, i. 1. p. 180; i. 2. p. 305.
[299] Aristot. Polit. l. vi. 2. 2.
[300] L. viii. c. 41. 5. p. 429, ed. Siebel.
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[301].
[301] Pausanias, l. viii. 32. 1. Leake’s Travels in the Morea, vol. ii.
p. 32. 39, 40.
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[302]. 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!
[302] Polyb. l. iv. c. 20, 21.
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[303]. 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[304]. 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[305]. 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.
[303] Buonaroti (Osservazioni sopra alcuni Medaglioni Antichi, p.
41.) has exhibited brass coins, in one of which Mercury is riding
on a sheep; in a second the sheep is seen with Mercury’s bag of
money on its back; and in a third the caduceus is over the sheep,
and two spikes of corn, emblems of agricultural prosperity, spring
out of the ground before it. Among the gems of the Baron de Stosch,
now belonging to the Royal Cabinet at Berlin, No. 381. Class II.
represents Mercury sitting upon a rock with a dog by his side:
Winckelmann observes, that “the dog is the symbol of Mercury as
the protector of shepherds.” Nos. 392, 393, 396-402, in the same
collection, represent him with sheep, and one of them (399.)
exhibits him standing erect in a chariot drawn by four rams, and
holding the bag or purse in his right hand and the caduceus in his
left.
Some of the coins of Sicily appear to refer in like manner to the
character of Mercury as the promoter of the trade in wool.
The Honorable Keppel Craven (Excursions in the Abruzzi, London,
1838, vol. i. ch. 4. p. 109.) mentions a temple at Arpinum, a city
of Latium, which was dedicated, as appears from an inscription
found on its site, to MERCURIUS LANARIUS. This title evidently
represented Mercury as presiding over the growth of wool and the
trade in it.
Perhaps the very ancient idea of Mercury making the fleece of
Phryxus golden by his touch may have originated in the same view.
See Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, l. 11. 1144, and Scholion ad
locum.
[304] Il. xiv. 490. See also Hom. Hymn to Mercury, 569. Hesiod, Theog.
444.
[305] Paus. l. v. 27. 5. and l. viii. 14. 7.
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[306]. 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[307]. 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.
[306] [German 283] Bartholdy, Bruchstücke zur Kenntniss des
heut. Griechenlands, p. 238.
[307] Dodwell’s Tour, vol. ii. p. 388-393. Leake’s Travels in the
Morea, vol. i. p. 486-490. The latter author gives the following
account of a visit which he paid to the family of a shepherd,
consisting of twelve or fifteen individuals, who lived together in
a tent on Mount Lycæus:--“Milk and misithra (a preparation made
by boiling milk and whey together) is their usual food. ‘We have
milk in plenty,’ they tell me, ‘but no bread.’ Such is the life
of a modern Arcadian shepherd, who has almost reverted to the
balanephagous state of his primitive ancestors (Orac. Pyth. ap.
Pausan. Arcad. c. 42.). The children, however, all look healthy and
are handsome, having large black eyes and regular features with
very dark complexion.”
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[308]. 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[309]. 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[310], 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.
[308] Plutarchi Pyrrhus, p. 705. ed. Steph.
[309] Herod. viii. 137.
[310] Theopompus, as quoted by Servius on Virgil, Buc. vi. 13, makes
mention of the shepherds, who kept the flocks of Midas, king of
Phrygia.
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[311]. 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.
[311] Holland’s Travels, p. 443. Hughes’s Travels, vol. i. p. 483, 484,
496.
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[312]. 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.”
[312] No one has described this pastoral migration more minutely or
more beautifully, than Mr. Charles Fellows, in his _Discoveries in
Lycia_.
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[313].
[313] According to the learned German traveller, Baron Riedesel, the
custom was not extinct in his time; for in his Travels through
Sicily, page 148 of Forster’s English translation, he says, “The
shepherds still sing with emulation to gain the crook or the purse,
which is the prize of the best performer.” Nevertheless, the modern
can be only a very faint imitation of the ancient practice; for
thus the same author speaks in other passages:
“Here I had an opportunity of pitying the wretched situation of
modern Sicily in comparison with what it was in former ages. Many
towns and different nations are destroyed; immense riches are
dissipated; the whole island can at present scarce show 1,200,000
inhabitants, _the number which Syracuse alone formerly had_. Many
beautiful spots, which used to produce corn and fruits, are now
deserted for want of laborers; many spacious ports are without any
ships for want of trade; and many people want bread, _whilst the
nobility and the monks_ are in possession of all the lands.” p.
112, 113.
“To conclude, the climate, the soil, and the fruits of the country
are as perfect as ever. But the precious Greek liberty, population,
power, magnificence, and good taste, are now not to be met with as
in former times, and the present inhabitants can only say, Fuimus
Troes.” p. 151.
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[314]. 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.”
[314] L. iv. c. 84, p. 283.
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[315].
[315] Theocritus, Idyll vi. and xi. Lucian, Dial. Doridis et Galateæ.
Ovid, Met. L. xiii. 739-870.
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[316]. He
then pined away, and died of hopeless love for the nymph, whom he had
offended[317]. According to Virgil (_Buc._ v. 56-71.) _he was raised to
the stars_, and sacrifices were offered to him by the shepherds.
[316] Timæus, author of the Hist. of Sicily, as quoted by Parthenius,
c. 29. Ælian, Var. Hist. L. x. c. 18. Diod. Sic. L. iv. c. 84. p.
283.
[317] Theocritus, Idyll i. 66-141. and vii. 72-77.
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[318],
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._
[318] Idyll v. 20. See also v. 80. In Idyll vi. Daphnis is one of the
performers, and gives a description of Galatea.
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[319].
[319] See Appendix A.
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.