The first of these authors (_De Re Rusti_The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances; Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.

his own flocks of sheep in Apulia. It appears from his account that

every man was obliged to report the number of his sheep to the publican

and to have them inscribed in a register, the earliest allusion, to a

code of laws, which may probably have been in some respects similar to

that now called “La Mesta” in Spain. Varro further speaks expressly of

the summer and winter migrations of the flocks; and to show the great

distances to which they were conducted on these occasions, he states

that the sheep of Apulia were taken every year to pass the summer in

the mountains of Samnium, and sometimes even in those of Reate[320].

[320] De Re Rustica, L. ii. c. 1. p. 161. ed. Bip. See also, c. 2. p.

167.

Of the nature and circumstances of these annual migrations we are

enabled to form some judgment, not only from the animated description

already quoted from Dr. Holland in relation to Albania, but still more

distinctly from the following accounts by the Honorable Keppel Craven,

one of which relates to the first group of mountains mentioned by

Varro, the other to the second.

In the year 1818 Mr. Craven visited a large farm a few miles to the

south of Foggia, and consequently not far from the site of the ancient

Arpi in Apulia. He mentions the following particulars.

“Above 200 persons were employed, and resided on the spot. The

stock of sheep consisted of 8000, divided into several flocks; to

which those of cows, goats, and buffaloes, together with a set of

brood mares and a suitable quantity of poultry, bore an equivalent

proportion. All the cattle are guarded by large milk-white dogs of

the Abruzzo breed. These animals are very handsome and resemble

the Newfoundland species, but have sharper noses; they are very

intelligent and equally fierce. The flocks are tended by natives

of Abruzzo, who also undertake the care of milking them, as well

as making the cheese, &c.; they are assisted by their wives and

children, who accompany them in their yearly migrations to and from

the mountains. These shepherds are clothed in the skins of the animals

which they watch, and are reckoned a quiet, attentive, frugal, and

trust-worthy race.” _Tour through the southern Provinces of the

Kingdom of Naples, by the Honorable Keppel Craven_, p. 80.

The scene of the following extract is the valley of the Aternus,

descending from the region of the highest Apennines, the “montes

Reatini” of Varro, not very remote from the ruins of his farm and

villa, (These ruins are described at page 45 of the volume from which

this passage is extracted.), and proceeding towards the sites of the

modern Aquila and of the ancient Amiternum.

“One of the broad tratturos, or cattle-paths, runs in the same line

with the high-road to Aquila; and I was so fortunate as to see it

occupied by a very extended line of flocks, which slowly passed by the

carriage for the space of a mile or more. The word ‘fortunate’ adapted

to such a spectacle, may excite a smile in my readers; but I own that

I never beheld one of these numerous animal congregations plodding

across the flats of Capitanata, or the valleys of Abruzzo, as far as

the eye could reach, without experiencing a sensation of a novel and

exciting kind, nearly allied to that of enjoyment, but which I shall

not attempt to account for.

“One shepherd heads each division of cattle, of which he has the

peculiar care and direction. Armed with his crook, he walks some

paces in advance of his flock, followed by an old ram termed _il

manso_; which word, meaning tame or instructed, has undoubtedly a more

apposite signification than that of our bell-wether, though he is, as

well as ours, furnished with a large deep-toned bell.

“The sheep march in files of about twelve in each; and every

battalion, if I may so call it, is attended by six or eight dogs,

according to its number; these accompanying the herd, walking at the

head, middle, and rear of each flank. The beauty and docility of

these animals, which are usually white, has often been described, and

their demeanor is gentle as long as the objects of their solicitude

are unmolested, but at night they are so savage, that it would be

dangerous to approach the fold they guard.

“The goats, which bear a very small proportion to the sheep, and

are in general black, wind up the array, and evince their superior

intelligence by lying down whenever a temporary halt takes place. The

cows and mares travel in separate bodies. A certain number of these

flocks, commonly those belonging to the same proprietor, are under the

immediate management and inspection of an agent, entitled _fattore_,

who accompanies them on horseback, armed with a musket, and better

clad than the shepherds, who, both in summer and winter, wear the

large _sheep-skin jacket_, and are in other respects provided with

substantial though homely attire, including good strong shoes.

“These Fattores are all natives of Abruzzo, an Apulian never having

been known to undertake the profession: the former, through particular

habits and the repeated experience of years, are looked upon as so

peculiarly fitted for the care required by cattle, and indeed animals

of all kinds, that all the helpers in the stables of the capital are

natives of these provinces, or of the adjoining county of Molise. In

addition to these qualifications, they are esteemed an abstemious and

honest race.

“When following the calling of shepherds, and occupied, as I saw

them, in the duties of their charge in travelling, their countenances

are almost invariably marked by the same expression, which combines

mildness and sagacity with immovable gravity, and, it is painful to

add, a look of deep-seated sadness; the whole caravan, animal as well

as human, exhibiting, at least while engaged in one of those tedious

peregrinations, a general appearance of suffering and depression,

distinguishable in every individual that composes it. The shepherd

that opens the march, the independent manso jingling his brazen bell,

the flocks that follow, the dogs that watch over their security, and

even the Fattore who directs the procession, all appear to be plodding

through a wearisome existence of monotony and toil. The extreme

slowness of their progress, the downcast expression of every head

and eye, and, above all, the indications of exhaustion and fatigue

which are but too perceptible after a journey of more than a month’s

duration, may well account for this impression.

“The animals suffer greatly from heat until they reach their summer

dwelling, and full as much from lameness, which, when it has reached

a certain pitch, becomes the signal for destruction. I saw a mule

bearing no other load than the skins of those that had perished in

this manner.

“Several other beasts of burden follow the rear of the herds, laden

with the various articles necessary for them and their guardians

during their protracted march: these consist in the nets and poles

requisite to pen the folds at night, the coarse cloth tents for the

use of the shepherds, and a limited stock of utensils for milking, and

boiling the produce of the flock. Among these are to be noticed some

portable jointed seats of very ingenious though simple construction,

composed of the stems of the giant fennel, a substance remarkable for

its light and compact texture.

“The cattle which I thus met near Aquila were within two days’ journey

of their resting-place, which is generally in some of the valleys

placed on the lower flanks of the mountain ridges, but sufficiently

elevated above the larger plains to afford fresh and abundant herbage

and a cooler temperature.

“The duration of their abode in these regions is regulated by the

rapid or slow progression of the summer season; in the course of which

they shift their quarters, as the heat increases, till they reach the

highest spots, which are the last divested of the deep snows, in which

they have been buried during three quarters of the year. Here large

tracts of the finest pasture, rills of the coldest and purest water,

and shady woods of considerable extension, are occupied by them during

the remainder of the fine weather, and afford the _ne plus ultra_

of enjoyment allotted to an existence of such restricted variety.”

_Excursions in the Abruzzi by the Honorable Keppel Craven._ _London_,

1838, _vol._ i. _p._ 259-264.

The account, given in the second paragraph of this extract, of the

shepherd marching at the head of his battalion of sheep illustrates in

a striking manner the remark made respecting the comparison of kings to

shepherds, and to their leading rams in Homer and in the Scriptures.

The Greek word Κτίλος, originally an adjective, corresponds exactly to

the Italian _manso_. It appears to have been applicable to all trained

tame animals. Hence it was used specially to denote the large and

powerful ram, which was instructed to assist the shepherd in disposing

the sheep in proper order and in leading them to and from their daily

pasture as well as during their long migrations. In the third book

of the Iliad (_l._ 196-198), where Priam is described surveying the

Greek troops from the Scæan gate, after the account of Agamemnon, who

was considered as their shepherd, we find Ulysses, who was inferior

to him both in rank and in stature, represented as his _manso_, that

is, as the ram, which immediately follows the shepherd and aids him in

conducting the flock. The same image is repeated in the thirteenth book

(_l._ 492, 493), where Pope’s translation, though very paraphrastic, is

an admirable representation of the real circumstances.

In order follow all th’ embodied train,

Like Ida’s flocks proceeding o’er the plain:

Before his fleecy care, erect and bold,

Stalks the proud ram, the father of the fold;

With joy the swain surveys them, as he leads

To the cool fountains, through the well-known meads.

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

Corniger Idæi vacuam pastoris in aulam

Dux aries saturas ipse reduxit oves. _Lib._ iii. _El._ 13.

The fold receives the sheep on Ida fed,

By the great ram, their horned chieftain, led.

Aristotle calls these rams “the leaders of the sheep,” and he states,

that the shepherds provided for each flock such a leader, _which, when

called by name by the shepherd, placed himself at the head of the

flock_, and was trained to execute this office from an early age[321].

The employment of the _manso_ was probably the ground, on which many of

the Orientals adopted the ram as the emblem of military authority[322].

According to this supposition it would rather denote secondary than

supreme command; and if so, _the representation of the king of Persia

by the symbol of a ram in the 8th chapter of Daniel is the more

expressive, because it indicated that he was the agent of the supreme

Deity_. Probably also the same sentiment was intended to be conveyed by

the enthusiastic Sapor, or Shahpoor II., King of Persia in the _fourth

century_, when he rode to battle in front of his army wearing instead

of a diadem a ram’s head wrought in gold and studded with precious

stones[323].

[321] Hist. Animal. viii. 19.

[322] E. F. K. Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterthumskunde, iv. 2. p. 83.

[323] Ammianus Marcell. xix. 1.

Any one, who has seen the collection of ancient bronze bells in the

Museum at Naples, and compared them with those now worn in Italy

about the necks of sheep and other cattle, will be struck with

their similarity. We know also from various ancient laws and other

evidence[324] that the shepherds fastened bells upon their sheep as

they do at the present day.

[324] See note of Sweertius on the treatise of Hieron. Magius de

Tintinnabulis, cap. viii.

There is a striking correspondence between the words of Varro, “crates,

retia, cæteraque utensilia,” and Craven’s account of the provision of

nets, &c. for making folds, and of the other necessary utensils.

At Sepino, the ancient Sæpinum, situated in the highest part of the

mountains of Samnium near the source of the Tamarus, Mr. Craven saw

over the Eastern gate the remains of a very remarkable inscription

referring to the same practice[325]. This inscription has been

accurately published by Muratori[326]. It clearly distinguishes between

the “fattores” (_conductores gregum oviaricorum_) and the shepherds

who were under them (_pastores quos conductores habent_). These were

molested by the magistrates of Sæpinum and the neighboring town of

Bovianum, and by the “stationarii” or soldiers, who, instead of

being ready to protect them in case of need, charged them with being

fugitives and with cattle-stealing, and under this pretence drove

back even those sheep which belonged to the emperor (_oves quoque

dominicas_) and thus greatly injured his revenue. These grievances were

consequently represented to an officer at Rome who kept the emperor’s

accounts (_Cosmus, Augusti Libertus a Rationibus_); and he writes in

the terms of the inscription to Basseus Rufus and Macrinus Vindex,

officers of rank in the army, in order that the evil might be remedied.

This inscription must have been erected about the commencement of the

Christian æra. As Mr. Craven remarks, “It not only corroborates what

was already known, that the periodical migration of the herds from

Apulia is of most ancient origin, but it proves, that they observed the

same line of route which they follow to the present day; the road, that

runs from the east to the western gate of this inclosure, falling into

the line of the _tratturos_, or sheep-paths, exclusively allotted to

the use of the flocks in their annual journeys.”

[325] See Excursions in the Abruzzi, vol. ii. p. 135, 136.

[326] Novus Thesaurus Vet. Inscriptionum, p. DCVI.

Whilst we discover these numerous points of resemblance between the

ancient and the modern practice, it is probable that in other respects

there was a greater diversity. If the author whose observations have

been cited had witnessed a similar procession in very ancient times,

he would have seen less reason to deplore its toilsome and melancholy

aspect. Music was then probably of no little service in animating

both the shepherds and their flocks. The sonorous _bagpipe_ may have

contributed to this effect[327]. At least Mr. Craven’s account of a

modern pastoral march is strikingly contrasted with the following

description by Apollonius Rhodius, in which he compares the ship Argo

and the music of Orpheus, followed by multitudes of fishes, to a

shepherd playing on the syrinx and followed by his sheep.

Ὡς δ’ ὁπότ’ ἀγραύλοιο κατ’ ἴχνια σημαντῆρος

μυρία μῆλ’ ἐφέπονται ἄδην κεκορημένα ποίης

εἰς αὖλιν, ὁ δέ τ’ εἶσι πάρος σύριγγι λιγείῃ

καλὰ μελιζόμενος νόμιον μέλος· ὥς ἄρα τοί γε

ὡμάρτευν· πὴν δ’ αἰὲν ἐπασσύτερος φέρεν οὖρος.

_Argon_, _L._ i. 575-579.

As sheep in flocks thick-pasturing on the plain

Attend the footsteps of the shepherd-swain,

His well-known call they hear, and fully fed,

Pace slowly on, their leader at their head;

Who pipes melodious, as he moves along,

On sprightly reeds his modulated song:

Thus charm’d with tuneful sounds the scaly train

Pursued the flying vessel o’er the main.

_Fawkes’s Translation._

[327] According to Montfaucon (Ant. Expliquée, Suppl. Tom. iii.

p. 188.) the bagpipe was seen under the arm of a shepherd in the

collection of Cardinal Albani at Rome.

The testimony afforded by Varro relative to the management of the South

Italian sheep, having been given and illustrated, it is to be deplored

that Italy, once so renowned for its sheep, can now boast little of

this production of her bounteous clime. The Romans, whose dress was

woollen, cultivated in an especial degree the fineness of the fleece;

and it was not until the days of the Empire that the silk and cotton of

the East began to supersede the ancient raiment of the Roman people.

The finest wools of ancient Italy were produced in Apulia and Calabria,

being the eastern parts of the present kingdom of Naples[328].

[328] It appears from the following passage of Varro, that the Apulian

was sold at a higher price than some other kinds of wool which were

equally beautiful, because it wore better. By _lana Gallicana_ in

this passage we must understand the wool of Gallia Cisalpina, of

which we shall next treat.

Sic enim lana Gallicana et Appula videtur imperito similis propter

speciem, cum peritus Appulam emat pluris, quod in usu firmior sit.

_De Lin. Lat._, lib. ix. 28. p. 484. ed. Spengel.

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

and Palladius.

The first attests the high estimation in which the sheep of Calabria

and Apulia were held by the Romans, especially before his own time,

and he says that among them the Tarentine sheep were the best of all.

In speaking of the practice so prevalent in this district of covering

them with skins, he shows, that these “oves pellitæ” were also called

“soft” (_molles_), and “covered” (_tectæ_). Indeed he makes the great

distinction of sheep to be into the “_genus molle_,” i. e. the soft

kind, and the “genus hirsutum,” or “hirtum,” i. e. the coarse kind.

We further learn that the soft sheep were called by the Romans Greek

sheep, because they were bred in Græcia Magna, and Tarentine, because

the best of all were bred at Tarentum. According to Palladius they

were also sometimes called Asiatic (_Asianæ_). It is to be observed

that by _Asia_, Palladius and his contemporaries would understand

the celebrated sheep-country of which Miletus was the centre[329];

and considering the frequent, long-established, and very friendly

intercourse between Miletus and Tarentum[330], we may infer that the

Milesians imported into Tarentum their fine breed of sheep, and at the

same time introduced the art of _dyeing_ and _preparing_ the wool.

The same sheep, which were called Greek by the Romans, were called

_Italian_ by the Egyptians and others, to whom the word _Greek_ would

not have been distinctive. Columella (vii. 4.) insists particularly

on the great pains and care, which it was necessary to bestow upon

this description of sheep, the “covered” or “soft,” in regard to food,

warmth, and cleanliness, and he says that they were principally brought

up in the house[331].

[329] Cellarii Ant. Orbis Notitia, iii. 1. 7, 8, 9.

[330] Herod. vi. 21. and Wesseling _ad locum_.

[331] According to Bochart (Hieroz. cap. 45. p. 486, ed. Leusden), the

Talmud and another rabbinical book, lambs soon after their birth

were invested with garments fastened upon them with thongs or

buckles.

In the sheep-breeding countries of Europe the practice seems to

have been very general. Besides South Italy, Attica, Megaris, and

Epirus, in regard to which countries positive evidence has been

produced, we find that soft sheep, or “oves pellitæ” were kept by

an inhabitant of Cynethæ in Arcadia (Polybius, L. ix. c. 17.), by

the Roman settlers in the North of Gaul and in Spain.

As there was in general a great affinity between the manners and

ideas of Sicily and South Italy, we might infer that the pastoral

habits of these two districts were in many respects similar. Theocritus

accordingly lays the scene of some of his Idylls on the coast opposite

to Sicily. The fifth Idyll describes a contest between a shepherd and

a goatherd, who are supposed to have been employed as hired servants

in the vicinity of Sybaris. The shepherd, observing some of his sheep

to be feeding on an oak, which could not be very good for them, utters

the following exclamation, showing that it was customary to give proper

names to sheep, and thus confirming the fact, that in ancient times

they were regarded as the objects of affection, and not of profitable

speculation merely:

Οὐκ ἀπὸ τᾶς δρυὸς οὗτος ὁ Κώναρος, ἅ τε Κυναίθα·

Τουτεὶ βοσκησεῖσθε ποτ’ ἀντολὰς, ὡς ὁ Φάλαρος.

Ho! Sharphorn, Browning, leave those hurtful weeds,

And come and graze this way, where Colly feeds.

_Creech’s Translation._

The passage has often been cited in illustration of the following

verses from the Gospel of St. John. Our Savior, describing himself as a

shepherd, here alludes to various indications of care and attachment,

which distinguish the owner of a flock from the hireling, who, being

engaged to tend the sheep only for a season, could not be so well known

by them, nor so much interested in their security and welfare.

“He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he

putteth forth (from the fold) his own sheep, he goeth before them, and

the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will

they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice

of strangers.”--_John_, x. 3-5.

In reference to this passage of Scripture the following remarks of a

late traveller are instructive:

“I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to sheep.

He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd

when he called them by their names. This morning (_March 5, 1828_),

I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing

by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which

I put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade

him to call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its

pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd,

with signs of pleasure and with a prompt obedience which I had never

before observed in any other animal. It is also true of the sheep

in this country, _that a stranger will they not follow, but will

flee from him; for they know not the voice of the strangers_. The

shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still WILD;

that they had not yet learned their names; but that by teaching they

would all learn them. The others, which knew their names, he called

TAME.”--_Researches in Greece and the Levant, by the Rev.

John Hartley_, p. 321.

The city of Sybaris stood between two rivers, the Sybaris and the

Crathis. The ancients asserted that the sheep which drank of the

Crathis, were white, and those which drank of the Sybaris, black. They

attributed similar virtues to other streams in various parts of the

world[332].

[332] Ælian, Nat. Anim. xii. 36. Plinii Hist. Nat. xxxi. 9. Kruse’s

Hellas, i. p. 369. (See Appendix A.)

According to Strabo (L. vi. _cap._ 3. § 9. _p._ 303. _ed. Siebenkees_)

the hilly promontory of Garganus was particularly celebrated for its

sheep. He says, that their wool was softer than the Tarentine, but less

shining.

The Roman poets allude in various instances to the excellence of

the Apulian wool, and especially to that of Tarentum. Horace in the

following stanza expresses his predilection for this celebrated city,

and mentions its “soft” or “covered” sheep. He had been asserting his

wish to end his days at Tibur, the modern Tivoli.

But, should the partial Fates refuse

That purer air to let me breathe,

Galesus, thy sweet stream I’ll choose,

Where flocks of richest fleeces bathe:

Phalanthus there his rural sceptre sway’d,

Uncertain offspring of a Spartan maid.

_Od._ _l._ ii. 6.--_Francis’s Translation._

Martial alludes to the celebrity of the Tarentine wool in no less than

five of his epigrams.

Spartan Galesus did your toga lave,

Or from a flock select fair Parma gave.

L. ii. _ep._ 43. _l._ 3, 4.

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

fashionable kind.

You give, O Chloe, to Lupercus,

Your tender favorite, lacernas

Of Spanish, Tyrian, scarlet fleeces,

And togas wash’d in warm Galesus.

L. iv. _ep._ 28. _l._ 1-3.

Thou wast more sweet, O lovely child!

Than song of aged dying swans:

Thy voice, thy mien were soft and mild

As Phalantine Galesus’ lambs.

L. v. _ep._ 37. _l._ 1, 2.

The last lines were written by Martial on the death of Erotion in her

sixth year. He describes her interesting qualities by comparing her to

a lamb of the soft Tarentine breed, always clothed and usually kept in

the house and hence remarkably tender and delicate.

The following epigram (L. viii. _ep._ 28.) was written on the receipt

of a handsome toga from the wealthy and munificent Parthenius,

chamberlain to the emperor Domitian. In expressing his admiration of

it, the poet enumerates the places from which the Romans of his time

obtained the best and most fashionable garments of this description. He

next proceeds to extol its whiteness; and in conclusion observes how

ridiculous he would appear wearing his old _lacerna_ over this new and

snowy garment, and he thus conveys a hint to Parthenius how acceptable

and suitable would be the present of a lacerna in addition to the toga.

De Partheniana toga.

Dic, toga, facundi gratum mihi munus amici,

Esse velis cujus fama, decusque gregis?

Appula Ledæi tibi floruit herba Phalanthi,

Quà saturat Calabris culta Galesus aquis?

An Tartessiacus stabuli nutritor Iberi

Bætis in Hesperia te quoque lavit aqua?

An tua multifidum numeravit lana Timavum,

Quem prius astrifero Cyllarus ore bibit?

Te nec Amyclæo decuit livere veneno;

Nec Miletus erat vellere digna tuo.

Lilia tu vincis, nec adhuc dilapsa ligustra,

Et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur.

Spartanus tibi cedet olor, Phaphiæque columbæ:

Cedet Erythræis eruta gemma vadis.

Sed licet hæc primis nivibus sint æmula dona,

Non sunt Parthenio candidiora suo.

Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbè

Texta, Semiramia quæ variantur acu.

Non Athamantæo potius me mirer in auro,

Æolium dones si mihi, Phryxe, decus.

O quantos risus pariter spectata movebit

Trita Palatina nostra lacerna toga!

Say, grateful gift of mine ingenious friend,

What happy flock shall to thy fleece pretend?

For thee did herb of famed Phalantus blow,

Where clear Galesus bids his waters flow?

Did thy wool count the streamlets, more than seven,

Of him, who slaked the warrior horse of heaven?

Or did Tartessian Guadalquiver lave

Thy matchless woof in his Hesperian wave?

Thou didst not need to taste Amyclæ’s bane,

And wouldst have tried Milesian art in vain.

With thee the lily and the privet pale

Compared, and Tibur’s whitest ivory fail.

The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deplore

Their hue, and pearls on Erythrean shore.

But, though the boon leave new-fall’n snows behind,

It is not purer than the donor’s mind.

I would prefer no _Babylonian vest_,

_Superbly broider’d_ at a queen’s behest;

Nor better pleased should I my limbs behold,

Phryxus, in _webs_ of thine Æolian gold.

But O! what laughter will the contrast crown,

My worn lacerna on th’ imperial gown!

It may be observed, that in this ingenious epigram, as well as in two

of the preceding, which relate to togas, Martial supposes the Tarentine

wool to be white: for the Roman toga was of that color except in

mourning, and one object of the last-cited epigram is to praise the

whiteness of the particular toga, which it describes. The Tarentines

therefore must have produced both dark-colored and white fleeces.

The fifth passage of Martial (xii. 64.), which mentions the sheep of

the Galesus, more directly refers to those of Spain, and will therefore

be quoted under that head.

Besides the epigrams, now cited, in which Martial commends the wool of

Tarentum in particular, we find others, in which he celebrates that of

Apulia in general. In Book xiv. Ep. 155. he gives an account of the

principal countries, which yielded white wools, and informs us that

those of the first quality were from Apulia.

White Wools.

The first Apulia’s; next is Parma’s boast;

And the third fleece Altinum has engrost.

_Elphinston’s Translation._

Also in the following lines Martial alludes to the large and numerous

flocks of Apulia, and to the whiteness of their wool.

Of white thou hast to clothe a tribe sufficient stock,

The produce fair of more than one Apulian flock.

L. ii. _Ep._ 46. _l._ 5, 6.

On the other hand the wool from the vicinity of Canusium was no less

esteemed for its dark colors, whether inclining to brown or to red.

These saved the expense of dyeing. The testimony of Pliny to their

value has been already produced. In the two following Epigrams (_l._

xiv. 127 _and_ 129.) Martial alludes to the peculiar recommendations

and uses, first of the brown, and secondly of the reddish variety.

This Canusine lacerna, it is true,

Looks muddy: but it will not change its hue[333].

Rome in the brown delights, gay Gaul in red:

This pleases boys, and whose is blood to shed.

[333] It appears from this epigram that, when shaken, it had the

color of the brown wool of Canusium, a kind of drab. The lacerna

was a mantle, which the Romans wore out of doors over their white

toga, with which it was well contrasted, whether it was purple,

scarlet, or brown; but the last color, though less showy at first,

must have had the advantage of durability. See Appendix A.

On referring to the passages produced from Pliny, Columella, and

Martial, it will be seen that the Romans ascribed a very high value

to the white wool of Gallia Cisalpina, i. e. of North Italy, or the

region about the Po. Parma was considered second only to Apulia for

the whiteness of its wool. Besides the two epigrams of Martial already

cited, he refers to Parma as a great place for sheep-breeding in the

following passage, addressed to the wealthy Callistratus:

And Gallic Parma shears thy num’rous flocks.

L. v. _ep._ 13.

Columella speaks moreover (_l. c._) of the superiority of the wool

of Mutina, now Modena; and Martial (_l._ v. _ep._ 105.) mentions

the circumstance of a _fuller_, or _clothier_, in that city having

exhibited a show to the public, which is a presumptive evidence that he

had a great business in manufacturing the produce of the surrounding

country.

Strabo in his account of the productions of Cisalpine Gaul divides

the wool into three kinds; First, the soft kind, of which the finest

varieties were grown about Mutina and the river Scutana, which is the

modern Scultenna, a tributary of the Po, rising in the Apennines;

Secondly, the coarse kind, grown in Liguria and the country of the

Insubres, which was very much used for the common wearing apparel

of the Italians; and Thirdly, the middle kind, grown about Patavium

(now Padua) and employed for making valuable _carpets_ and various

descriptions of _blankets_[334]. By comparing the statements of this

author with those of Columella and Martial it will appear, that the

whole region watered by the parallel rivers Parma, Gabellus, and

Scultenna, and known by the name of _Macri Campi_, or the Barren

Plains, was esteemed for the production of the fine white wool.

[334] Strabo, L. v. c. 1. § 12. p. 119. ed. Siebenkees.

That the tending of both sheep and goats was a principal occupation

of the people of Mantua we learn from Virgil, a native of that city,

who places the scene of most of his pastorals in its vicinity. His

First and Ninth Eclogues more particularly relate to the calamities,

which the Mantuans were compelled to sustain, when Augustus seized

on their lands to reward his veteran soldiers after the battle of

Philippi. These eclogues mention flocks both of sheep and goats,

and show that those who had the care of them cultivated music and

poetry after the manner of the Sicilians. The commencement of the

Seventh Eclogue is especially instructive, because it gives us reason

to believe, that while many of the Arcadians left their country in

consequence of that excess of population, to which mountainous regions

are subject, in order to become foreign mercenaries, others, on the

contrary, entered into foreign service as shepherds and goatherds, and

in this condition not only made themselves useful by their experience,

skill, and fidelity, but also introduced at the same time their native

music together with that refinement of manners and feelings which it

promoted. The poet thus describes two such individuals, who had been

employed in tending flocks upon the banks of the Mincius (_l._ 12,

13), and who were either born in Arcadia, or were at least of Arcadian

origin.

Two blooming swains had join’d their flocks in one,

Thyrsis his sheep, and tuneful Corydon

His goats, which bore their treasur’d milk along;

Arcadians both, both skill’d in amœbean song.

At a considerable distance to the North-East of Mantua lay Altinum,

which is mentioned by Columella[335], Tertullian, and Martial, as

one of the principal places for the produce of _white_ wool. Martial

says, that it ranked in this respect next to Parma[336], and we must

understand him as referring to the same region in Book viii. Epig. 28,

where he asks, “Did thy wool count the many streams of the Timavus,

which Cyllarus previously drank with his starry mouth?” The Timavus was

indeed a considerable way still further towards the North-East, and

must have been very insignificant in connection with the sheep-breeding

of the Altinates. The poet introduces it here only on account of its

picturesque and mythological interest, just as we have seen that the

Galesus, a small, though clear and very beautiful stream, is repeatedly

named in order to designate the pastoral region about Tarentum. It may

also be observed, that in this epigram, where Martial alludes to three

of the principal places for the growth of white wool, he indicates each

of them by its river, the three rivers being the Galesus, the Bætis,

and the Timavus; and he probably did so on account of the supposed

effect of the waters of these rivers in improving the wool.

[335] L. vii. cap. 2.

[336] L. xiv. Ep. 155.

We can make no question, after what we have seen of the universal

practice of both ancient and modern times, that the sheep, which in the

winter were pastured in the plains and lower grounds about Altinum,

were taken to pass the summer in the vallies of the Carinthian Alps

about the sources of the Brenta, the Piave, and the Tagliamento. We may

also trace the wool, after it was manufactured, in its progress towards

Rome, where was the chief demand for garments of this description. For

Strabo says, that Patavium (_Padua_), which was situated at no great

distance from Altinum on the way to Rome, was a great and flourishing

mart for all kinds of merchandize intended to be sent thither, and

especially for every kind of cloth[337]. It appears, therefore, that

the wool-growers and clothiers of the country to the North-East of

Padua, the modern Trevisano, employed that city as an entrepôt where

they disposed of their goods to the Roman dealers. At the same time we

learn, that this place served as a market for _carpets_ and _blankets_

made of a stronger and more substantial material, which, according to

the same authority[338], was produced in its more immediate vicinity.

[337] L. v. cap. 1. § 6, 7. Strabo alludes to the pastoral occupations

of the territory about Altinum and the Timavus.

[338] Strabo.

In the North-Western portion of Cisalpine Gaul the wool was generally

coarse, and according to Strabo (_l. c._) the garments made of it

were used by the Italians for the ordinary clothing of their domestic

establishments. Nevertheless, black wool of superior value was grown

at Polentia, now Polenza, on the Stura, which is a tributary of the

Po[339]. The following two Epigrams of Martial (_l._ xiv. 157 and 158.)

allude to the use of the dark wool of Polentia for mourning and for the

dress of inferior domestic servants.

Polentine Wools.

1. Not wools alone, that wear the face of woe;

Her goblets once did proud Polentia show.

2. Our sable hue to croplings may belong,

That tend the table, not of primal throng.

_Elphinston’s Translation._

[339] Pliny, L. viii. Columella, vii. 2. To these testimonies may be

added Silius Italicus de Bello Punico, l. viii. 597.

The country people about Modena and in other parts of the Northern

Apennines still wear _undyed_ woollen cloth of a gray color. Muratori

quotes from the statutes of the city of Modena, A. D. 1327, a law to

_prevent the makers of such cloth from mixing with their gray wool the

hair of oxen, asses, or other animals_[340].

[340] Dissertazioni sopra le Antichità Italiane, Diss. 30. tomo ii.

48, 49, 4to edition. This author in his 21st Dissertation endeavors

to assign reasons for the decline of the modern Italians in the

growth and manufacture of wool.

Before quitting Italy we may properly inquire, whence and how came

the practice of sheep-breeding into Great Britain. It has already been

observed that the very improved state of the art at Tarentum may be in

part ascribed to the intercourse of its inhabitants with the Milesians.

The reader will have noticed the fact that the worship of Pan was

introduced into Italy from Arcadia by Evander, from which circumstance

it may be reasonably inferred, that improvements in the management of

sheep were also introduced at the same time. According to Dionysius of

Halicarnassus, Evander with his companions was said by the Romans to

have migrated to Latium _about sixty years before the Trojan war_[341].

The same historian alleges that this colony taught in Italy the use

of letters, of instrumental music and other arts, established laws,

and brought some degree of refinement instead of the former savage

mode of life. The story of the birth of Romulus and Remus supposes

sheep-breeding to have been practiced at the period of that event, and

in a state of society similar to that which we have found prevailing

further eastward; for it is stated, that Faustulus, who discovered

them, kept the king’s flocks. He was “magister regii pecoris[342].”

[341] Hist. Rom. l. i. p. 20, 21. ed. R. Stephani, Par. 1546. folio.

As it has been a frequent error with nations to push back their

annals into a higher antiquity than was consistent with fact, this

may have been the case in the present instance. For it is to be

observed, that according to Herodotus the worship of Pan did not

arise in Arcadia until after the time when according to this latter

statement it was introduced from Arcadia into Latium.

[342] Livii l. i. c. 4.

According to Pausanias (_l._ viii. _c._ 3. § 2.) the first Greek

colony, which went into Italy, was from Arcadia, being conducted

thither by Œnotrus, an Arcadian prince[343]. This was several centuries

before the expedition under Evander, and the part of Italy thus

colonized was the southern extremity, afterwards occupied by the

Bruttii[344]. If with Niebuhr we regard this tradition only in the

light of a genealogical table, designed to indicate the affinities of

tribes and nations, still the simple fact of the colonization of South

Italy by Arcadians certainly authorizes the conjecture, that Arcadia

was one of the stepping-stones, by which the art of sheep-breeding was

transported from Asia into Europe.

[343] As further evidence for this tradition see Pherecydis Fragmenta,

a Sturtz, p. 190. Virg. Æn. i. 532, and iii. 165. Compare Heyne,

Excursus vi. ad Æn. l. iii.

[344] Heyne, Excursus xxi. ad Æn. l. i. Niebuhr, Röm. Geschichte, i. p.

57.

The reader will have perceived from the observations already made on

the worship of Faunus in Italy, that the Roman Faunus was the same with

the Arcadian Pan. It seems no sufficient objection to this hypothesis,

that a few Roman authors have supposed Faunus to be either the son of

Mars[345], or of Picus and the grandson of Saturn, thus connecting him

with their native mythology, or that his oracle was held by them in

high repute[346]. It is here sufficient to remark, that we find him

extensively recognized in Italy as a pastoral divinity.

Stretch’d on the springing grass, the shepherd swain

His reedy pipe with rural music fills;

The god, who guards his flock, approves the strain,

The god, who loves Arcadia’s gloomy hills.

_Horat. Carm._ iv. 12. 9-12.--_Francis’s Translation._

The above stanza occurs in a description of the beauties of spring,

and the poet no doubt alludes to the pastoral habits of his Sabine

neighbors.

[345] Appian apud Photium.

[346] Virgil, Æn. vii. 48, 81-105, and Heyne, Excursus v. ad loc.

From ancient monuments as well as from the language of the poets we

find, that the worship of other divinities was associated with that

of Faunus in reference to the success of all agricultural pursuits

including that of sheep-breeding. Boissard, in the Fourth Part of his

Antiquitates Romanæ, has published somewhat rude engravings of the

bas-reliefs upon two altars, one of them (No. 130) dedicated to _Hope_,

the other (No. 134) to _Silvanus_. The altar to Hope was erected, as

the inscription expresses, in a garden at Rome by M. Aur. Pacorus,

keeper of the temple of Venus. He says, that he had been admonished

to this deed of piety by _a dream_; and, if the representation in the

bas-relief was the image thus presented to his mind, his dream was

certainly a very pleasant one. Hope, wearing on her head a wreath of

flowers, places her right hand upon a pillar and holds in her left

poppy-heads and ears of corn. Beside her is a bee-hive on the ground,

and on it there is also fixed a bunch of poppy-heads and ears of corn.

Above these emblems of the fruitfulness of the field and of the garden

is the figure of a bale of wool.

The altar to Silvanus exhibits that divinity crowned with the cones and

foliage of the pine. A pine grows moreover beside his terminal statue,

bearing the large cones, which were used for food at entertainments and

carried in bacchanalian processions. Faunus, or Pan, sits at the foot

of the pine, the syrinx and the double pipe being placed at his feet.

In his right hand he holds an olive branch, while a young winged genius

advances towards him as if to receive it, and another genius of the

same kind appears to be caressing him and whispering into his ear. On

the other side of the terminal statue of Silvanus we see the caduceus

of Mercury and the bale of wool, manifest indications of success in the

wool trade. In this sculpture the bale is surrounded with cords, which

are twisted round one another where they cross. In the former instance

the compression of the wool appears to be effected by the use of

thongs instead of cords[347]. There is also introduced the figure of a

shepherd of the same country. This statue was found in the vicinity of

Rome and is now preserved in the Vatican[348]. The extremities are in

part restorations. A cameo in the Florentine Museum[349] represents the

shepherd Faustulus sitting upon a rock, and contemplating the she-wolf,

which is suckling Romulus and Remus. It is of the Augustan age, and no

doubt exhibits the costume and general appearance of a Roman shepherd

of that period. He wears a _tunica cucullata_, i. e. a tunic of coarse

woollen cloth with a cowl, which was designed to be drawn occasionally

over the head and to protect it from the injuries of the weather. This

garment has also sleeves, which Columella mentions (_tunica manicata_)

as an additional comfort. On his feet the shepherd wears high shoes, or

boots, which, as we may suppose, were made of leather.

[347] The bas-relief on the first altar is copied from Boissard by

Montfaucon, Ant. Expliquée, tome i. p. 332. and that on the second,

tome ii. p. 275. The latter is also represented by the Rev. Henry

Moses, Collection of Antique Vases, &c. Plate 52.

[348] Museo Pio-Clementino, tomo iii. tav. 34 and p. 44.

[349] Museum Florentinum. Gemmæ Antiquæ a Gorio illustratæ, tav. ii.

No. 10.

The appearance of the shepherds, who are represented in these ancient

works of art, is, doubtless, adapted to produce the impression, that

their condition, even if it were that of slaves, was nevertheless one

of comfort and respectability. Neither their garb, nor their attitude,

suggests the idea of anything base or miserable. On the contrary,

the countenance of each indicates trust-worthiness, steadiness, and

care. That many of the agricultural laborers of ancient Italy had this

character may be inferred also from written testimonies.

In reference to this subject, and with a view to illustrate at the

same time the habits and employments of the ancient farmer among the

_Sabine_ or _Apulian_ mountains, we will here quote some parts of

Horace’s Second Epode, in which he describes the pleasures of a country

life.

Like the first mortals blest is he,

From debts, and usury, and bus’ness free,

With his own team who ploughs the soil,

Which grateful once confess’d his father’s toil.

The sounds of war nor break his sleep,

Nor the rough storm, that harrows up the deep;

He shuns the courtier’s haughty doors,

And the loud science of the bar abjures.

Either to poplars tall he joins

The marriageable offspring of his vines;

Or lops the useless boughs away,

Inserting happier as the old decay:

Or in a lonely vale surveys

His lowing herds, safe-wand’ring as they graze;

Or stores in jars his liquid gold

Prest from the hive, or shears his tender fold.

* * * * *

And, if a chaste and prudent wife

Perform her part in the sweet cares of life,

Of sun-burnt charms, but honest fame,

Such as the Sabine or Apulian dame;

If, when fatigued he homeward turns,

The sacred fire, built up with faggots, burns;

Or if in hurdles she inclose

The joyful flock, whence ample produce flows;

Though unbought dainties she prepare,

And this year’s wines attend the homely fare;

No fish would I from foreign shore

Desire, nor relish Lucrine oysters more.

Olives, fresh gather’d from the tree;

_Mallows, the frame from heaviness to free_[350];

A kid snatch’d from the wolf, a lamb

To Terminus with due devotion slain;

Such is the meal, his labor o’er;

No bird from distant climes I’d relish more.

Meanwhile how pleasant to behold

His sheep well fed, and hasting to their fold;

To see his wearied oxen bow

Their languid necks, and drag th’ _inverted_ plough;

And then his num’rous slaves to view

Round his domestic gods their mirth pursue.

[350] See chap. xii. p. 191.

CHAPTER III.

SHEEP BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE

SCRIPTURES, &c.

Sheep-breeding in Germany and Gaul--In Britain--Improved by the

Belgians and Saxons--Sheep-breeding in Spain--Natural dyes of Spanish

wool--Golden hue and other natural dyes of the wool of Bætica--Native

colors of Bætic wool--Saga and chequered plaids--Sheep always bred

principally for the weaver, not for the butcher--Sheep supplied milk

for food, wool for clothing--The moth.

According to Tacitus[351], the ancient Germans had abundance of cattle,

although we have no reason to suppose that they had acquired any of

that skill in sheep-breeding, by which their successors in Silesia and

Saxony are now distinguished. On the contrary, we are informed by the

same author that the only woollen garment, which they commonly wore,

was the _Sagum_, a term implying the coarseness of the material[352].

[351] Terra pecorum fecunda, sed plerumque improcera.--Germania, v. 2.

[352] Nudi, aut sagulo leves.--Germania, vi. 3. Tegumen omnibus sagum.

xvii. 1.

We find almost as little in any ancient author in favor of the wool of

Gallia Transalpina, the modern France. Pliny mentions a coarse kind,

more like hair than wool, which was produced in the neighborhood of

Pezenas in Provence[353]. Martial’s account of the Endromis Sequanica,

coarse, but useful to keep off the cold and wet, bears upon the same

point;

The frousy foster of a female hand;

Of name Laconian, from a barb’rous land;

Though rude, yet welcome to December’s snow,

To thee we bid the homely stranger go:

* * * * *

That into glowing limbs no cold may glide,

That baleful Iris never drench thy pride:

This fence shall bid thee scorn the winds and showers;

The Tyrian lawn pretends no equal powers.

_Elphinston’s Translation._

[353] See Appendix A.

In the following epigram of Martial (vi. 11.), addressed to his

friend Marcus, we observe a similar opposition between the fine and

fashionable cloth of Tyre, and the thick coarse “sagum” produced in

Gaul.

Proud Tyrian thine, gross Gaulish mine array:

In purple thee can e’er I love in gray?

Juvenal gives exactly the same account of the woollen manufactures

of Gaul. In the following passage the needy dependant of a rich man

is speaking of the lacernas from that country, which were sometimes

presented to him by his patron.

Some coarse brown cloaks perhaps I chance to get,

Of Gallic fabric, as a fence from wet.

_Satir._ ix. _v._ 30.--_Owen’s Translation._

To the same effect are several passages in the Epistles of Sidonius

Apollinaris, who was Bishop of Clermont in Auvergne in the fifth

century. He mentions, for example, that the attendants on Prince

Sigismer at his marriage wore green _Saga_ with red borders, and he

describes a friend of his own as wearing the Endromis[354]. Also in an

account of his own villa he speaks of the pipe with seven holes, as

the instrument of the shepherds and herdsmen, who used to entertain

themselves during the night with musical contests, while their cattle

were grazing with bells upon their necks.

[354] Viridantia saga limbis marginata puniceis. L. iv. Ep. 20. Tu

endromidatus exterius. L. iv. Ep. 2.

All these passages are confirmed and illustrated by the testimony

of Strabo. According to him Gaul produced cattle of all kinds[355].

The Belgæ, who occupied the most northern part, opposite to Britain,

excelled the rest of the Gauls in their manufactures. Nevertheless

their wool was coarse, and was spun and woven by them into the thick

Saga, which were both worn by the natives of the country and exported

in great quantities to Rome and other parts of Italy. The Roman

settlers, indeed, in the most northern parts had flocks of covered

sheep, and their wool was consequently very fine[356].

[355] L. iv. cap. i. § 2. p. 6. ed. Siebenkees.

[356] L. iv. cap. iv. § 3. pp. 56-59. ed. Siebenkees.

Here also may be produced the evidence of Eumenius, who in his Oration,

which will be quoted more fully hereafter, intimates the abundance of

the sheep on the western banks of the Rhine by saying, that the flocks

of the Romans were washed in every part of the stream[357].

[357] Arat illam terribilem aliquando ripam inermis agricola, et toto

nostri greges flumine bicorni mersantur. p. 152.

Cæsar informs us, that the ancient inhabitants of Britain had abundance

of cattle (_pecoris magnus numerus_); under the word (_pecus_)

“cattle,” sheep must no doubt be understood to be included. It also

appears, that in his time the Celts, or proper Britons, lived to the

North of the Thames, the Belgians having expelled them and taken

possession of the part to the South, called _Cantium_ or _Kent_. These

last were by far the most civilized inhabitants of the island, not much

differing in their customs from the Gauls. With respect to the others,

Cæsar says, that for the most part they did not sow any kind of grain,

but lived upon milk and flesh, and clothed themselves with skins[358].

[358] Ex his omnibus longè sunt humanissimi, qui Cantium incolunt;

quæ regio est maritima omnis; neque multum a Gallicâ differunt

consuetudine. Interiores plerique frumenta non serunt; sed lacte et

carne vivunt, pellibusqe sunt vestiti. De Bello Gallico, I. v. cap.

10.

It appears therefore, that before our æra, sheep, and probably goats,

were bred extensively in England, their milk and flesh being used for

food, and their skins with the wool or hair upon them for clothing;

and that the people of Kent, who were of Belgic origin, and more

refined than the original Britons, had attained to the arts of spinning

and weaving, although their productions were only of the coarsest

description.

Eumenius, the Rhetorician, who was a native of Augustodunum, now

called Autun, delivered his Panegyric in praise of the Emperors

Constantius and Constantine in the city of Treves about A. D. 310.

In the following passage he congratulates Britain on its various

productions, and also on the circumstance, that Constantine had been

recently declared Emperor at York on the death of his father:

O fortunate Britain, now the happiest country upon earth; for thou

hast been the first to see Constantine made Emperor. It was fit that

on thee Nature should bestow every blessing of climate and of soil.

Suffering neither from the excessive severity of winter, nor the heat

of summer, thy harvests are so fruitful as to supply all the gifts

both of Ceres and of Bacchus; thy woods contain no savage beasts, thy

land no noxious serpents, but an innumerable multitude of tame cattle,

distended with milk, and loaded with fleeces[359].

[359] Panegyrici Veteres, ed. Cellarii, Halæ Magd. 1703. pp. 147, 148.

The improvements in sheep-breeding which were first introduced into

England by the Belgians, appear to have been advanced still further by

the Saxons.

The only country, which now remains to be surveyed in relation to the

production of sheep’s wool, is Spain; and, as this kingdom retains

its pre-eminence at the present day,[360] so we find none, in which

sheep-breeding was carried to a greater extent in ancient times.

[360] For accounts of the state of sheep-breeding in modern Spain,

including the annual migration of the flocks, which is conducted

there as in Italy, the reader is referred to “Travels through

Portugal and Spain in 1772, 1773, by R. Twiss,” pp. 72-82; and

to De la Borde’s View of Spain, vol. iv. pp. 45-61, English

Translation. London, 1809.

Of all the countries in Europe, says Mr. Low, Spain has been the

longest distinguished for the excellence of its wool. This fine

country, more varied in its surface and natural productions than any

other region of the like extent in Europe, produces a great variety of

breeds of sheep, from the larger animals of the richer plains, to the

smaller races of the higher mountains and arid country. Besides the

difference produced in the sheep of Spain by varieties of climate and

natural productions; the diversity of character in the animals may be

supposed to have been increased by the different races introduced into

it:--first, from Asia, by the early Phœnician colonies; secondly, from

Africa by the Carthaginians, during their brief possession; thirdly,

from Italy by the Romans, during their dominion of six hundred years;

and fourthly, again from Africa, by the Moors, who maintained a footing

in the country for nearly eight centuries. The large sheep of the

plains have long wool, often colored brown or black. The sheep of the

mountains, downs, and arid plains have short wool, of different degrees

of fineness, and different colors. The most important of these latter

breeds is the merino, now the most esteemed and widely diffused of all

the fine-wooled breeds of Europe.

Pliny not only refers in general terms to the various natural colors of

the Spanish wool, but mentions more particularly the red wool produced

in the district adjoining the river Bætis, or Guadalquiver[361].

[361] See Appendix A.

Among the natural colors of the Bætic wool, Columella, a native of

Cadiz, (vii. 2.) mentions, as has been already stated, _gray_ and

_brown_. The latter is what we call _drab_, and the Spaniards _fusco_.

It is now commonly worn by the shepherds and peasants of Spain, the

wool being made into clothes without dyeing.

Nonius Marcellus (_cap._ 16. _n._ 13), explaining the word _pullus_,

which was called a _native_ color, because it was the natural color of

the fleece, also shows, that this was a common quality of the Spanish

wool. Another testimony is that of Tertullian.

The sheep of Tarentum were imported into this part of Spain, and there

also their fleeces were protected by clothing. Columella (L. vii. 2.)

gives a very interesting account of the experiments made by his uncle,

a great agriculturalist of Bætica, in crossing his Tarentine breed with

some wild rams of an extraordinary color, which had been brought from

Africa to Cadiz. (See latter part of next chapter.)

We have a further evidence of the pains taken to improve the Spanish

breed in the circumstance, that Italian shepherds passed into Spain,

just as we have formerly seen, that they migrated into Italy from

Arcadia. In the following lines of Calpurnius (Ecl. iv. 37-49.),

Corydon, a young shepherd, tells his friend and patron, Melibœus,

that he should have been transported into Bætica, had not the times

improved, and his master’s favor enabled him to remain in Italy.

Through thee I rest secure beneath the shade,

Such plenty hath thy generous bounty made,

But for thy favor, Melibœus, sent

Where Bætis’ waves the western plains indent,

Plains at the earth’s extremest verge, expos’d

To the fierce Moors, which Geryon once inclos’d.

There had I now been doom’d to tend for hire

Iberian flocks, or else of want expire:

In vain I might have tun’d my seven-fold reed:

Mid thickets vast no soul my strains would heed:

Not even Pan on that far-distant shore

Would lend his vacant ear, or be my solace more.

Juvenal in his Twelfth Satire (_l._ 37-42.) describes a merchant

overtaken by a dreadful storm, and to save the ship throwing his

most valuable goods into the sea. It will be observed, that the poet

attributes the excellence and fine natural color of the woollen cloth

of Bætica to three causes, the rich herbage, the occult properties of

the water, and those of the air.

“Over with mine,” he cries; “be nothing spar’d;”

To part with all his richest goods prepar’d;

His vests of Tyrian purple, fit to please

The softest of the silken sons of ease,

And other robes, which took a native stain

From air and water on the Bætic plain.

_Owen’s Translation._

Strabo (iii. 144. p. 385. _ed. Sieb._) gives the following account of

the wool of Turdetania.

Πολλὴ δὲ καὶ ἐσθὴς πρότερον ἤρχετο· νῦν δὲ καὶ ἔρια μᾶλλον τῶν

Κυραξῶν, καὶ ὑπερβολή τις ἐστὶ τοῦ κάλλους· ταλαντιαίους γοῦν ὠνοῦνται

τοὺς κριοὺς εἰς τὰς ὀχείας, ὑπερβολὴ δὲ καὶ τῶν λεπτῶν ὑφασμάτων, ἅπερ

οἱ Σαλτιῆται κατασκευάζουσιν.

“Much cloth used formerly to come from this country. Now also fleeces

come from it more than from the Coraxi; and they are exceedingly

beautiful, so that rams for breeding are sold for a talent

each. Also the fine webs are very famous, which are made by the

Saltiatæ.”--_Yates’s Translation._

The reader will please to remark, that this is the passage of Strabo,

formerly referred to as containing evidence respecting the Coraxi.

Martial, a Spaniard by birth, frequently alludes to the sheep of

Bætica and especially to the various natural colors of their wool,

which were so much admired, that it was manufactured without dyeing.

Two of his epigrams (iv. 28. and viii. 28.) have been already quoted,

as they refer also to the sheep of Tarentum: to these the seven

following may be added.

In the Tartessian lands a house appears,

Where Cordova o’er placid Bætis rears

Her wealthy domes; and where the fleeces show

Metallic tints, like living gold that glow.

ix. 62.

Corduba, more joyous far

Than Venafrum’s unctuous boast;

Nor inferior to the jar,

That renowns glad Istria’s coast:

Who surmount’st the fleecy breed,

That the bright Galesus laves;

Nor bidd’st lying purple bleed

O’er the hue, that nature craves.

xii. 63.--_Elphinston’s Translation._

Bætis, with wreaths of unctuous olive crown’d,

For Bacchus’ and for Pallas’ gifts renown’d;

Whose waters clear a golden hue impart

To fleeces, that require no further art;

Such wealth the Ruler of the waves conveys

In ships, that mark with foam thy liquid ways.

xii. 99.

Lacernas from Bætica.

My wool disdains a lye, or caldron hue.

Poor Tyre may take it: me my sheep imbue.

xiv. 133.--_Elphinston’s Translation._

Charming Ero’s golden lock

Beat the fleece of Bætic flock.

v. 37. See § 21.--Ib.

Bætic fleeces, many a pound.

xii. 65. l. 5.

Let him commend the sober native hues;

Of Bætic drab, or gray, lacernas choose,

Who thinks no man in scarlet should appear,

And only women pink or purple wear.

i. 97.

The numerous passages, which have now been produced relative to the

native colors of the Spanish wool, explain the following line of

Virgil, in which he describes the clothing of a warrior;

With broider’d chlamys bright, and Spanish rust.

Æn. ix. 582.

The poet probably intended to describe an outer garment, a chlamys,

made of undyed Spanish wool of a clear brown or yellowish color,

resembling that of rust; and afterwards enriched with embroidery.

Ramirez de Prado, the Spanish commentator on Martial (_4to. Paris_,

1607.), says, that two native colors were common in Spain in his time,

the one a golden yellow, the other more brown or ferruginous.

In the North of Spain the Celtiberi wore saga made of a coarse

wool like goats’-hair (_Diod. Sic._ v. 33. _tom._ i. _p._ 356.

_Wesseling_.), and woven _double_ according to Appian[362].

[362] Appiani Hist. Rom. l. vi. de Rebus Hispan., vol. i. p. 151. ed.

Schweighäuser.

At Salacia in Lusitania, according to Pliny, a chequered pattern

was employed in the manufacture of the coarse wool. This was in all

probability the same as the shepherd’s plaid of the Scotch, the weaver

taking advantage of the natural difference of the white and black wool

to produce this variety of appearance. (See Appendix A.)

Estremadura, a part of the ancient Bætica, is still famous for its

wool. There the Spanish flocks hybernate, and under the direction of a

peculiar code of laws, called _La Mesta_, are conducted every spring

to pasture in the mountains of Leon and Asturias. Other flocks are led

in the same season from great distances to the heights of the Sierra

Morena, lying to the east of the ancient Bætica, where the vegetation

is remarkably favorable to the improvement of their wool.

As bearing directly upon the present inquiry it may be observed, that

sheep have always been bred principally for the weaver, not for the

butcher, and that this has been more especially the case in ancient

times and in eastern countries.

If we may judge from the following epigram of Martial, the Romans

regarded with feelings little short of aversion the act of killing a

sheep for food except on solemn or extraordinary occasions.

The Ram’s head.

Hast pierc’d the neck of the Phryxean lord,

Who oft had shelter’d thine? O deed abhorr’d!

xii. 211.--_Elphinston’s Translation._

The customs of the shepherd tribes in the East are in this respect

remarkably like those of the ancients.

“The Arabs rarely diminish their flocks by using them for food, but

live chiefly upon bread, dates, milk, butter, or what they receive in

exchange for their wool. They however sell their sheep to the people in

the towns. A lamb or kid roasted whole is a favorite dish at Aleppo,

but seldom eaten except by the rich[363].” When the Arabs have a

sheep-shearing, they perhaps kill a lamb, and treat their relations

and friends with it together with new cheese and milk, but nothing

more. Among the Mohammedans sheep are sacrificed on certain days as a

festive and at the same time a religious ceremony; these ceremonies are

of great antiquity and derived from Arab heathenism. On the pilgrimage

to Mecca every one is required to sacrifice a sheep at a certain place

near Mecca[364].

[363] Harmer s Observations, vol. i. p. 393. ed. Clarke.

[364] Harmer, p. 39.

Pallas (Spicilegia Zoologica, Fasc. xi. p. 79.) speaks of the

beautiful lamb-skins from Bucharia, as being admired for their

curled gray wool.

By the Law of Moses the sheep was a _clean_ animal, and might

consequently be eaten or sacrificed. A lamb or kid, roasted whole, was

the principal and characteristic dish at the feast of the passover. The

rich man kills a lamb to entertain his guest in the beautiful parable

of Nathan. (2 _Sam._ xii. 4.) Sheep were killed on the festive occasion

of shearing the very numerous flocks of Nabal. (1 _Sam._ xxv. 2. 11.

18.) An ox and six choice sheep were sacrificed daily for the numerous

guests of Nehemiah, while he was building the wall of Jerusalem.

(_Neh._ v. 17, 18.) Immense numbers of sheep and oxen were sacrificed

at the dedication of Solomon’s temple. (1 _Kings_, viii. 5. 63.) The

prophet Ezekiel (xxxiv. 3.) describes the bad shepherd as selfishly

eating the flesh and clothing himself with the wool of the sheep,

without tending them with due care and labor.

In the Suovetaurilia among the Romans a hog, a sheep, and a bull,

their principal domestic animals, were sacrificed. A sheep was

killed every day for the guards, who watched the tomb of Cyrus.

(_Arrian_, _vol._ i. _p._ 438, _Blancardi_.) In the Odyssey (ρ.

180-182.) a sacrifice is made and a feast prepared of sheep, goats,

hogs, and a cow. Also in Od. v. 3. 250. sheep are sacrificed and

furnish part of a feast. In order to ratify a treaty between the Greeks

and Trojans, the former sacrificed a lamb of the male sex to Jupiter;

the latter one of the male sex and white to the Sun, and another of

the female sex and black to the Earth. (Il. γ. 103, 104.) Sheep are

sacrificed to Apollo at Delphi in Euripides, Ion, _l._ 230. 380.

The rare instances of the use of sheep for food or sacrifice by the

Egyptians have been already noticed.

But, although sheep, both old and young, male and female, were

sacrificed to the objects of religious worship and on other festive

occasions were eaten, especially by the rich and great, yet their chief

use was to supply clothing, and the nourishment they yielded consisted

in their milk and the cheese made from it, rather than in their flesh.

This fact is illustrated by the words of Solomon, formerly quoted, and

in which he speaks of lambs for _clothing_ and goat’s _milk_ for food.

In like manner St. Paul says (1 Cor. ix. 7.), “Who planteth a vineyard,

and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth

not of the milk of the flock?”

Varro thinks, that sheep were employed for the use of man _before any

other animal_ on account of their usefulness and placidity, and he

represents their use to consist in supplying cheese and milk for food,

fleeces and skins for clothing[365]. In like manner Columella in his

account of the use of sheep (vii. 2.) says, they afforded the chief

materials for clothing. In treating of their use for food, he mentions

only their milk and cheese. Pliny refers to the employment of sheep

both for sacrifices and for clothing. He also remarks, that as the

ox is principally useful in obtaining food, to wit, by ploughing and

other agricultural processes, the sheep, on the other hand, supplies

materials for clothing[366].

[365] De Re Rustica, l. ii. cap. i.

[366] See Appendix A.

The fact, that wool was among the ancients by far the most common

material for making clothes, accounts for the various expressions in

scripture respecting the destructiveness of the moth.

“Your garments are moth-eaten.” James v. 2. “He, as a rotten thing,

consumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten.”--Job xiii. 28. “They all

shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.”--Is. l. 9.

“The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worms shall eat

them like wool.” Is. li. 8. “From garments cometh a moth.” Eccles.

xlii. 13. “Treasures, where moth and rust corrupt.” Matt. vi. 19.

But it is to be observed, that the sacred writers mention not the

moth, but the minute worm, which changes into a moth, and which alone

gnaws the garments. In the passages which have been quoted, the word

“moth” must be understood to signify the larva[367] of the clothes-moth

(_Phalæna Vestianella_, Linn.), or of some insect of the same kind.

[367] When an insect first issues from the egg, it is called by

naturalists _larva_.

CHAPTER IV.

GOATS-HAIR.

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

Sheep-breeding and Goats in China--Probable origin of sheep and

goats--Sheep and goats coeval with man, and always propagated

together--Habits of Grecian goat-herds--He-goat employed to lead

the flock--Cameo representing a goat-herd--Goats chiefly valued for

their milk--Use of goats’-hair for coarse clothing--Shearing of goats

in Phrygia, Cilicia, &c.--Vestes caprina, cloth of goats’-hair--Use

of goats’-hair for military and naval purposes--Curtains to

cover tents--Etymology of Sack and Shag--Symbolical uses of

sack-cloth--The Arabs weave goats’-hair--Modern uses of goats’-hair

and goats’-wool--Introduction of the Angora or Cashmere goat into

France--Success of the project.

The inquiry into the origin and propagation of the Goat, no less than

that of the sheep, may justly be considered a subject for interesting

investigation. Goats were no less highly prized by the ancient

inhabitants of Greece and Italy than by the modern. We have seen, that

the great value of sheep always consisted in its fleece. The goat,

on the contrary, was more valued for the excellence and abundance

of its milk, and for its suitableness to higher and more rugged and

unproductive land[368].

[368] Virgil, Georg. iii. 305-321.

We observe a clear allusion to this distinction between the principal

uses of sheep and of goats in the twenty-seventh chapter of the book

of Proverbs[369]. The management and use of goats has from time

immemorial formed a striking feature in the condition of man, and

especially of those nations which belong to the Caucasian, or, as Dr.

Prichard more properly denominates it, the _Iranian_ or _Indo-Atlantic_

variety of our race[370]. Their habits of sheep-breeding seem no

less characteristic than the form of their countenances, a no less

essential part of their manner of life than any other custom, by which

they are distinguished: and, as all the circumstances, which throw

any light upon the question, conspire to render it probable, that the

above-mentioned variety of the human race first inhabited part of the

high land of central Asia, so it is remarkable, that our domestic sheep

and goats may with the greatest probability be referred to the same

stock with certain wild animals, which now overspread those regions.

The sheep, as has been already observed in chapter I., is regarded as

specifically the same with the Argali; and in the opinion of Pallas,

which has been very generally adopted by zoologists, the goat is the

same with the Ægagrus, a gregarious quadruped, which occupies the

loftiest parts of the mountains extending from the Caucasus to the

South of the Caspian Sea, and thence to the North of India[371].

Indeed the history of these animals is so interwoven with the history

of man, that those naturalists have not reasoned quite correctly, who

have thought it necessary to refer the first origin of either of them

to any wild stock at all. They assume, that these quadrupeds first

existed in an undomesticated state, that is, entirely apart from man

and independent of him; that, as he advanced in civilization, as his

wants multiplied, and he became more ingenious and active in inventing

methods of supplying them, the thought struck him, that he might obtain

from these wild beasts the materials of his food and clothing; and that

he therefore caught and confined some of them and in the course of time

rendered them by cultivation more and more suitable to his purposes.

[369] “Be thou diligent 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 goats’ milk enough for thy

food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy

maidens.” Prov. xxvii. 23, 26, 27.

Bochart has quoted a great variety of ancient testimonies to the

value of goats’-milk in his Hierozoicon, l. ii. cap. 51. pp. 629,

630. ed. Leusden.

[370] See Prichard’s Researches into the Physical History of Mankind,

third edition, vol. i. pp. 247. 257-262. 303, 304. These

nations are characterized by the _oval_ form of the skull. Their

distribution over the face of the earth may be seen in the Map,

Plate VII.

The only remarkable exception to this limitation of ancient

sheep-breeding, is the case of the Chinese. It would appear from

the following evidence, that they had both sheep and goats in

ancient times.

The Chinese character for a sacrifice is a compound of two

characters, one placed above the other; the upper one, _Yang_, is

the character for _a lamb_, the lower is the character for _fire_;

so that _a lamb on the fire_ denotes _a sacrifice_. See Morison’s

Chinese Dictionary, vol. iii. part i.

According to the mythology of the Chinese, which as well as their

written characters is of high antiquity, one of the four rivers,

which rise in Mount Kaen-lun and run towards the four quarters of

the globe, is called the Yang-Choui, i. e. the _Lamb-River_. Thomas

Stephens Davies, Esq. in Dr. Robert Thomson’s British Annual for

1837, p. 271, 277.

Yang-Ching, i. e. _Sheep-city_, was an ancient name of Canton.

Morison, p. 55. There is a character for the _Goat_, which means

the _Yang of the mountains_, Yang being a general term like the

Hebrew צאן, including both sheep and goats. Ib. p. 61, 62.

In the following passage of Rufus Festus Avienus, who flourished

about A. D. 400, we have a distinct testimony, that the ancient

Seres, the probable ancestors of the Chinese, employed themselves

in the care of sheep at the same time that they were devoted to the

production of silk.

Gregibus permixti oviumque boumque,

Vellera per silvas Seres nemoralia carpunt.

Descriptio Orbis Terræ, l. 935, 936.

[371] Pallas, Spicilegia Zoologica, Fasciculus xi. pp. 43, 44. See also

Bell’s History of British Quadrupeds, London, 1837, p. 433.

We have no reason to assume, that man and the two lesser kinds of

horned cattle were originally independent of one another. So far as

geology supplies any evidence, it is in favor of the supposition,

that these quadrupeds and man belong to the same epoch. No properly

fossil bones either of the sheep or goat have yet been found, and we

have no reason to believe, that these animals were produced until

the creation of man. But, as we must suppose, that man was created

perfect and full-grown, and with those means of subsistence around him,

which his nature and constitution require, there is no reason why the

sheep and the goat may not have been created in such a state as to be

adapted immediately both for clothing and for food, or why it should be

considered more probable that they were at first entirely wild. They

may have been produced originally in the same abode, which was occupied

by that variety of the human race, to whose habits and mode of life

the use of them has always been so essential; and, if we assume, that

this abode was somewhere in the elevated land of central Asia, in the

region, for example, of Armenia, we adopt an hypothesis, which explains

in the most simple and satisfactory manner the apparent fact of the

propagation not only of men, but of these quadrupeds with them, from

that centre over immense regions of the globe.

With regard to historical evidence, it is certainly very defective.

No express testimony assures us of the facts included in the

above-named hypothesis. One thing, however, is certain, and it appears

very deserving of attention, viz. that the sheep and the goat have

_always_ been propagated together. We find great nations, which had

no acquaintance with either of these quadrupeds, but depended for

their subsistence upon either oxen or horses. We find others, on the

contrary, to whose mode of life the larger quadrupeds were of much less

importance than the smaller; but we find none, which were accustomed to

breed sheep without goats, or goats without sheep.

The reader will find numerous illustrations of this fact on reviewing

the evidence contained in the preceding chapters. General terms were

employed in the ancient world to include both sheep and goats[372].

Where more specific terms are used, we still find “rams and goats,”

“ewes and she-goats” mentioned together. Sheep and goats were offered

together in sacrifice, and the instances are too numerous to mention,

in which the same flock, or the wealth of a single individual, included

both these animals.

[372] It should be observed, that the Hebrew word translated _sheep_ in

Ex. ix. 3. included Goats.

In consequence of this prevailing association of sheep and goats,

they are often represented together in ancient bas-reliefs and other

works of art. Of this we have a beautiful example in the Rev. Robert

Walpole’s collection of “Travels in various countries of the East.” At

the end of the volume is a plate taken from a votive tablet of Pentelic

marble dedicated to Pan, and representing five goats, two sheep, and a

lamb. As the goats are in one group, and the sheep and lamb in another,

the artist probably designed to represent a flock of each. For, though

sometimes mixed in the same flock, the two kinds of animals were

generally kept apart; and to this circumstance our Savior alludes in

his image of the shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats[373].

[373] “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy

angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate

them one from another, _as a shepherd divides his sheep from the

goats_: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats

on the left.”--Matt. xxv. 31-33.

A sheep and a goat are seen reposing together in a Roman bas-relief in

the Monumenta Matthæiana, vol. iii. tab. 37. fig. 1.

Rosselini gives two paintings from Egyptian tombs, which exhibit both

sheep and goats[374]; and he mentions an inscription on the tomb of

Ranni, according to which that person had 120 goats, 300 rams, 1500

hogs, and 122 oxen.

[374] Monumenti dell’ Egitto, parte ii. Mon. Civili, tomo i. cap. iii.

§ 2. tavola xxviii. xxix.

In the account given in chapter II. of the Sicilian Daphnis, an epigram

by Callimachus on Astacides, who was a goatherd in Crete, was partially

quoted, probably remarkable for his beauty and his immature death. The

translation of the passage will now be given.

Ἀστακίδην τὸν Κρῆτα, τὸν αἰπόλον, ἥρπασε Νύμφη

Ἐξ ὄρεος· καὶ νῦν ἱερὸς Ἀστακίδης

Οἰκεῖ Δικταίῃσιν ὑπὸ δρυσίν· οὐκέτι Δάφνιν

Ποιμένες, Ἀστακίδην δ’ αἰὲν ἀεισόμεθα.

A nymph has snatch’d Astacides away;

Beneath Dictæan oaks our goatherd lies:

Shepherds! no more your songs to Daphnis pay;

For now with him the sacred Cretan vies.

_Yates’s Translation._

Theocritus (_Idyll._ vii. 12-20.) describes a goatherd of Cydon in

Crete, named Lycidas; and from the account which he gives of his

attire, we may judge of that commonly used in ancient Greece by the

same description of persons. He wore on his shoulders the dun-colored

hide of a shaggy goat, and an old shawl was fastened about his breast

with a broad girdle. In his right hand he held a crook of wild olive.

The same author (_Idyll._ iii. 5.) mentions a fine strong he-goat,

which was brought from Lybia to Sicily. The design of its

transportation was, no doubt, to improve the breed. Probably Chromis,

the Lybian (_Idyll._ i. 24.), who resided in Sicily, had migrated there

to undertake the management of goats and to improve their quality.

Maximus Tyrius (_Diss._ xxvii.) seems to suppose, that a flock of goats

could not even exist without the music of the syrinx. “If you take

away,” says he, “the goatherd and his syrinx, you dissolve the flock of

goats; in like manner, if you take away reason from the society of men,

thus depriving them of their leader and guide, you destroy the flock,

which by nature is tame, but may be injured by a bad superintendence.”

The he-goat was employed to lead the flock as the ram was among sheep.

The following passages of scripture allude to this custom. “Remove out

of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans,

and be as the he-goats before the flocks.” _Jer._ l. 8. “Mine anger was

kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats.” _Zech._ x.

3. In Proverbs xxx. 31., according to the Septuagint version, we read

of “the goat which leads the flock.” Julius Pollux (Lib. i. _cap._ 12.

_sect._ 19.) says, that “The he-goat leads the goats[375].”

[375] See also Ælian, Hist. Anim. vi. 42. and Pausanias, ix. 13. 4.

On a cameo in the Florentine Museum there is a representation of an

ancient goatherd[376]. The goatherd holds the syrinx in his left hand,

and a young kid in his right. A goat stands beside him, and his dog

appears partially concealed within a kennel formed in the rock, upon

which the goatherd is seated. The herdsman is represented sitting under

an aged ilex. At least this supposition accords with the language of

Tibullus already quoted.

[376] Mus. Florentinum. Gemmæ antiquæ a Gorio illustratæ. tab. xc. No.

A modern authoress, who spent some of the summer months in the year

1819 among the mountains east of Rome, notices goats in the following

terms as part of the stock of the farmers in that country.

“We frequently walked to one of these little farms, to meet the goats

coming in at night from the mountain. As the flock crowded down the

broken road leading to the fold, followed by their grotesque-looking

shepherd and his rough dogs, _the pet-kids crowding round their master

and answering to his call_, we could not help thinking of the antique

manners described by the poets, and represented in the pictures of

Herculaneum and Pompeii.

“The goats are the most useful domestic animals. Here no other cheese

or milk is tasted. Besides, the ricotta, a kind of curd, and junkets,

are made of goats’-milk, and, with bread serve many of the country

people for food[377].”

[377] Three Months passed in the Mountains east of Rome, by Maria

Graham (Lady Calcott), p. 36. 55, 56.

The same writer says, that “black sheep are rather encouraged here

for the wool,” and that “the clothing of the friars is of this

undyed wool.” p. 55.

From Athenæus[378] we learn the superior excellence of the goats of

Scyros and Naxos.

[378] Quoted in Chapter I. p. 236. Ælian bears testimony to the same

fact, observing, that the cows of Epirus were said to yield the

greatest quantity of milk, and the goats of Scyros. Hist. Anim. l.

iii. cap. 33.

From Tournefort, Sonnini, and other modern travellers we learn,

that both Scyros and Naxos are very rocky and mountainous, and that

they still produce goats. See also Dapper, Description des Isles de

l’Archipel, p. 256. 350.

Virgil (_l. c._), after mentioning the use of goats for food, goes on

to show their contributions to the _weaver_.

Cloth’d in their shaven beards and hoary hair,

Fence of the ocean spray and nightly air,

The miserable seaman breasts the main,

And camps uninjur’d press the marshy plain.

_Sotheby’s Translation._

The last line of this passage of Virgil is quoted by Columella (L. vii.

6.) in speaking of the utility of the he-goat;

For he himself is shorn “for the use of camps and to make coverings

for wretched sailors.”

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

As the sheep yields to man wool for clothing, so the goat furnishes

hair for the use of sailors, and to make ropes for military engines,

and vessels for artificers. * * * * * The goats are shorn in a great

part of Phrygia, because there they have long shaggy hair. Cilicia

(i. e. hair-cloths), and other things of the same kind, are commonly

imported from that country. The name _Cilicia_ is said to be derived

from the circumstance, that in Cilicia goats were first shorn for this

purpose. _De Re Rustica_, L. ii. _c._ ii. _p._ 201. _ed. Bip._

The language of Varro in this passage indicates, that the female goat

was shorn as well as the male; and that the excellence of goats’-hair,

which was used only for coarse articles, consisted in its length.

Columella mentions the long bristly hair of the Cilician goats[379].

[379] Setosum, quale est in Cilicia. De Re Rustica, l. i. Præf. p. 20.

ed. Bip.

Aristotle says, “In Lycia goats are shorn, as sheep are in other

countries.” _Hist. Anim._ viii. 28. This testimony of Aristotle agrees

with that of his nephew and pupil, Callisthenes, who says (_ap. Ælian.

de Nat. Anim._ xvi. 30.), “that in Lycia goats are shorn just as sheep

are everywhere else; for that they have a very thick coat of excellent

hair, hanging from them in locks or curls; and that this hair is

twisted so as to make ropes, which are used in navigation instead of

cables.”

Pliny, in his account of goats[380], says, “In Cilicia and about the

Syrtes they are covered with hair, which admits of being shorn.” From

this it may be inferred, in conformity with the testimonies already

cited from Varro and Virgil, that the longest and best goats’-hair was

obtained in Cilicia, and on the coast of Africa opposite to Sicily and

Malta, the modern Tripoli. It is remarkable, that Virgil, in order to

designate the latter district, refers to the romantic river Cinyps,

which flowed through it, observing the same practice, which we have

seen to be so common with the poets in regard to the countries noted

for the produce of the most excellent wool. In the interior and more

hilly portion of this district of Africa both sheep and goats are still

reared[381].

[380] L. viii. c. 76. See Appendix A.

[381] Proceedings of the Expedition to explore the Northern Coast of

Africa from Tripoli Eastward, by Beechey, ch. iv. p. 73. In the

same chapter, p. 52. 62-68, is an account of the Wad’el Khahan, the

ancient Cinyps.

The geographer Avienus asserts that goats’-hair was obtained for the

purpose of being _woven_ in the country of the Cynetæ in Spain[382].

Isidore of Seville, in his enumeration of the different kinds of

cloth (_Orig._ xix. 22.), uses the following expressions: “Fibrini

(vestis est) tramam de fibri lanâ habens: caprina.” Thus the text

now stands, evidently defective. The writer no doubt alluded to a

kind of cloth called _caprina_, because goats’-hair was used in the

manufacture of it. Beckmann (_History of Inventions_, _Eng. Trans._,

_vol._ iv. _p._ 224.) proposes to read, “tramam de fibri lanâ habens,

stamen de caprinâ,” i. e. “having the woof of beaver-wool, the warp

of goats’-wool.” But the ancients were unacquainted with the fine

wool of certain goats, and it is highly improbable, that they used

goats’-_hair_ in the case referred to, since the “Vestes Fibrinæ” were

of great value, as will soon be shown, and not made in any part of

coarse materials.

[382] _Rufi Festi Avieni Ora Maritima_, l. 218-221.

The cloth of goats’-hair would be suitable for sailors, both on account

of their hardy mode of life, and because it was better adapted than any

other kind to bear exposure to water.

Its use as clothing to express mourning and mortification will be

noticed presently.

The employment of goats’-hair for military and naval purposes was

far more extensive, and is proved by the following passage from the

Geoponica (xviii. 9.) in addition to the former testimonies.

Προσοδόυς δίδωσιν οὐκ ὀλίγας, τὰς ἀπὸ γάλακτος καὶ τύρου καὶ (σἀρκός)·

πρὸς δὲ τούτοις τὰς ἀπὸ τῆς τριχός. ἡ δὲ θρὶξ ἀναγΚαία πρός τε σχοίνους

καὶ σάκκους, καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια, καὶ εἰς ναυτικὰς ὑπηρεσίας,

οὔτε κοπτόμενα ῥᾳδίως, οὔτε σηπόμενα φυσικῶς, ἐὰν μὴ λίαν κατολιγωρηθῇ.

The goat yields no small profit from its milk, cheese, and (flesh).

It also yields a profit from its hair, which is necessary for making

ropes, sacks, and similar articles, and for nautical purposes, since

it is not easily cut, and does not rot from natural causes, unless it

be much neglected.--_Yates’s Translation._

Cicero (_in Verrem_, _Act_ i.) mentions _Cilicia_ together with hides

and sacks, and Asconius Pedianus in his Commentary on the passage (_p._

95. _ed. Crenii._) gives the following explanation: “Cilicia texta de

pilis in castrorum usum atque nautarum.” Servius on Virgil, Georg. iii.

313. says, that these Cilicia, or cloths of goats’-hair, were used to

cover the towers in sieges, because they could not be set on fire.

The reader is referred to the Poliorcetica of Lipsius, L. iii. Dial.

3. p. 158. for evidence respecting the use of hair ropes for military

engines, and to L. v. Dial. ix. for passages from Thucydides, Arrian,

Ammianus, Suidas, Vegetius, Curtius, and others, proving, that the

besieged in cities hung Cilicia over their towers and walls to obviate

the force of the various weapons hurled against them, and especially of

the arrows, which carried fire.

From Exodus we learn[383], that the Israelites in the wilderness among

their contributions to the Tabernacle gave goats’-hair, and that it

was spun by women. The spun goats’-hair was probably used in part to

make cords for the tent; but part of it at least was _woven_ into the

large pieces, called in the Septuagint “curtains of goats’-hair.” Such

curtains, or _Saga_, of spun goats’-hair seem to have been commonly

used for the covering of tents[384].

[383] “And thou shalt make curtains of goats’-hair to be a covering

upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make. The length of

one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain

four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.

And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains

by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront

of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of

the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in

the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. And thou shalt

make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops,

and couple the tent together, that it may be one. And the remnant

that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that

remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle. And a

cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which

remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang

over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side, to

cover it.”--Ex. xxvi. 7-13.

[384] “And he made curtains of goats-hair for the tent over the

tabernacle: eleven curtains he made them. The length of one curtain

was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain:

the eleven curtains were of one size.”--Ex. xxxvi. 14, 15.

Cloths of the same kind were used for rubbing horses[385]. The term for

goats’-hair cloth in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syraic, is שק or סק, i. e.

SHAC, or SAC, translated ΣΑΚΚΟΣ in the Septuagint, and SACCUS in the

Vulgate version of the Scriptures. The Latin SAGUM, appears to have

had the same origin. In English we have _Sack_ and _Shag_, scarcely

differing from the oriental and ancient terms either in sound or sense.

[385] _Vegetii Ars Veter._ _l._ i. _c._ 42.

_Cilice_, the modern French term for a hair-shirt, is immediately

derived from _Cilicium_, the origin of which has been explained[386].

[386] Menage, Dict. Etym. v. _Cilice_.

This kind of cloth, which was black or dark brown, the goats of Syria

and Palestine being chiefly of that color even to the present day,

is alluded to in the sixth chapter of Revelations[387], and in Is.

l. 3. “I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sack-cloth their

covering.” It was worn to express mourning and mortification. In

Jonah we have a very remarkable case, for on this occasion blankets

of goats’-hair were put on the bodies both of men and beasts, and

one was worn even by the king of Nineveh himself[388]. When Herod

Agrippa was seized at Cæsarea with the mortal distemper mentioned

in Acts xii. (See chap. vi. p. 93.), the common people sat down on

hair-cloth according to the custom of their country, beseeching God

on his behalf.--_Josephus_, _Ant. Jud._ _l._ xix. _cap._ 8. _p._ 872.

_Hudson_. So according to Josephus (_Ant. Jud._ _l._ vii. _cap._ 7.

_p._ 299.), David fell down upon sack-cloth of the same description and

lay on the ground praying for the restoration of his son.

[387] “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there

was a great earthquake; and the sun became as black as sack-cloth

of hair, and the moon became as blood.”--Rev. vi. 12.

[388] “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast,

and put on sack-cloth, from the greatest of them even to the least

of them. The word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from

his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with

sack-cloth, and sat in ashes.”--Jonah iii. 5, 6. In v. 5. we should

translate “put on hair-cloths;” for the word is _plural_ in the

Hebrew.

Hence the use of the hair-shirt by devotees in more recent times.

St. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in the fourth century, in answer to the

question, Whether a monk ought to have besides his night-shirt (_post

nocturnam tunicam_) a Cilicium or any other, says, “Cilicii quidem usus

habet proprium tempus. Non enim propter usus corporis, sed propter

afflictionem carnis inventum est hujuscemodi indumentum, et propter

humilitatem animae[389].” He then adds, that as the word of God forbids

us to have two shirts, we ought not to have a second except for the

purpose here mentioned. From this it is clear, that the Cilicium was

not commonly worn by the monks, but only at particular times for the

sake of humiliation.

[389] From the ancient version of Rufinus, p. 175. ed. 1513.

Dr. Sibthorp (_in Memoirs, edited by Walpole_,) informs us, that in

the present day the shepherds of Attica “shear the goats at the same

time with the sheep, about April or May,” and that the hair is made

into sacks, bags, and _carpets_, of which a considerable quantity is

exported. In modern as in ancient times, the inhabitants of Greece

subsist in a great measure upon goats’-milk and the cheese made from

it[390].

[390] Dodwell’s Tour, vol. i. p. 144.

The wives of the Arabian shepherds still _weave_ goats’-hair for their

tents. This hair-cloth is nearly black, and resembles that of which our

modern coal-sacks are made[391]. The Arabs also hang bags of the same

cloth, containing barley, about the heads of their horses to supply

them with food[392].

[391] Harmer’s Observations, ch. ii. Obs. 36. Dr. Shaw’s Travels, Part

iii. ch. 3. § 6. E. F. K. Rosenmuller, Biblische Alterthumskunde,

iv. 2. p. 89.

The use of goats’-hair for making cloth among the Moors is

mentioned by Rauwolff, _Travels_, part ii. ch. 1, p. 123 of Ray’s

Translation. The herdsmen on the wide plains about Smyrna live in

tents of “black goats’-hair.”--C. Fellows’s _Discoveries in Lycia_,

p. 8.

[392] D’Arvieux and Thevenot, ap. Harmer, ch. v. Obs. 9.

The goat, as is the case with some other quadrupeds, if confined to

a country, which is hot in summer and very cold in winter, is always

protected in the latter season by an additional covering of fine wool

beneath its long hair. A specimen of the Syrian goat in the Hunterian

Museum at Glasgow shows both the hair and the wool. In Kerman and

Cashmere this very fine wool is obtained by combing the goats in the

spring, when it becomes loose; and, having been spun into yarn, it is

used to make the beautiful _shawls_ brought from those countries.

We will now conclude this chapter with the following interesting

communication from Mr. E. Riley, being the substance of a paper lately

read before the Society of Arts, London.

Mr. Riley “in 1825 and 1828 transported to that territory two flocks

of the finest sheep procurable throughout Germany, my father had

also long contemplated introducing there the celebrated Cashmere

goat, anticipating that the fulfilment of his views would, in proving

advantageous to himself, become also of ultimate benefit to the colony;

in which expectation, he has been encouraged from the results that

have attended the importation of the Saxon breed of sheep into their

favored climates, the wools of New South Wales, and in proportion to

their improvement, those also of Van Dieman’s Land being now eagerly

purchased by the most intelligent manufacturers in preference to those

of equal prices imported from any part of Europe.

“With this object in view, he subsequently, during an agricultural tour

on the Continent, directed my attention to the Cashmere flocks of Mons.

Ternaux, and in October 1828, I met this distinguished man at his seat

at St. Onen (Mons. Ternaux is a great shawl manufacturer and a

Peer of France,) where he preserved the elite of his herds; the animals

were a mixture of various sizes and colors, from a perfect white to

brown, with scarcely any stamped features as if belonging to one race

exclusively; they were covered with long coarse hair, under which so

small a quantity of soft short down was concealed, that the average

produce of the whole collection did not exceed three ounces each;

therefore, under these unfavorable circumstances, my father deferred

for a time his intention of sending any of them to Australia.

“I was then advised by the Viscomte Perrault de Jotemps,

to see the stock of M. Polonceau at Versailles, he having, by a happily

selected cross, succeeded in increasing the quantity and value of the

qualities of the Cashmere goat beyond the most sanguine anticipations,

and in consequence of his enlightened taste for agricultural pursuits,

was also honored with the directorship of the model farm at Grignon. He

became among the first to purchase a chosen selection of the original

importation of the Cashmere goat from M. Ternaux, and some time after

seeing, at one of the estates of the Duchesse de Beri, an

Angora buck with an extraordinary silkiness of hair, having more the

character of long coarse but very soft down, he solicited permission

to try the effects of a union with this fine animal and his own pure

Cashmeres. The improvement even in the first drop was so rapid that

it induced him to persevere, and when I first saw his small herd they

were in the third generation from the males produced solely by the

first cross; the unwillingness however of M. Polonceau to part with any

number of them at this period (the only alienation he has made from the

favorite products of his solicitude being two males and two females

to the _King_ of _Wirtemberg_, for the sum of 3400 francs,) caused

my father again to postpone his intentions until my return from the

Australasian Colonies, judging that M. Polonceau would then probably be

enabled to dispose of a sufficient number, and that the constancy and

properties of the race would by that time be more decidedly determined.

“On my arrival in England at the close of 1831, he again recurred to

his favorite project of introducing these animals into our colonies,

for which purpose I went to France with the intention of purchasing a

small flock of M. Polonceau, should I find all his expectations of the

Cashmere Angora breed verified, which having perfectly ascertained,

I at length succeeded in persuading M. Polonceau to cede to me ten

females in kid, and three males, and I fortunately was able to convey

the whole in health to London, with the intention of proceeding as

speedily as possible with them to Port Jackson, looking sanguinely

forward not only to their rapid increase but also to _crossing_ the

_common goats_ of the country with this valuable breed, in full

expectation that they may, exclusive of their own pure down, become

thus the means of forming a desirable addition to the already much

prized importations from New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land. I am

led to the conclusion that the latter result may be accomplished, as M.

Polonceau, who has tried the experiment with the native goat of France,

has obtained animals of the second cross very little inferior to the

breed that has rendered his name so distinguished. He has also crossed

the common goat with the pure Cashmere, but only obtained so tardy an

amelioration, that it required eight or ten generations to produce a

down simply equal to their inferior quantity and quality when compared

to the produce of the Cashmere Angora.”

Mr. Polonceau has unremittingly persevered in the improvement so

immediately effected, and has proved during the several years which

have elapsed since the first experiment in the year 1822, that an

entire satisfactory result in the union of the most essential qualities

of down, _abundance_, _length_, _fineness_, _lustre_, and _softness_,

was accomplished by the first cross, without any return having ensued

to the individual characters of either of the primitive races, and in

consequence, he has since constantly propagated the produce of that

cross among themselves, careful only of preserving animals entirely

white and of employing for propagation those bucks which had the down

in the greatest quantity and of the finest quality with the smallest

proportion of hair.

In 1826; the “Societie Royale et Centrale d’Agriculture de Paris”

acquainted with the interesting result of M. Polonceau’s flock, being

at that time in the third generation, and considering that the down of

this new race was _more valuable than that of the East_, and that it

was the most beautiful of filaceous materials known, as it combines

the softness of Cashmere with the lustre of silk, awarded him their

large gold medal at their session, 4th April, 1826, and nominated him a

member of their society in the following year.

In 1827, at the exhibition of the produce of National Industry, the

jury appointed to judge the merits of the objects exposed, also awarded

him their medal.

At present the animals are in the twelfth generation, their health and

vigor, the constancy of their qualities, and abundance of their down

_without any degeneration_, prove that this new race may be regarded as

one entirely fixed and established, requiring solely the care that is

generally observed with valuable breeds; that is to say, a judicious

choice of those employed for their reproduction, and in such a climate

as New South Wales it may be reasonably expected that the brilliant

qualities of their down may yet be improved as has been so eminently

the case with the wool of the merino and Saxon sheep imported there.

M. Polonceau has goats that have yielded as many as thirty ounces of

the down, in one season, and he states that the whole of his herd

produce from twelve to twenty ounces; thus showing the astonishing

advantages this new breed has _over the uncrossed Cashmere_, which

never yield more than four ounces and seldom exceed two ounces each.

This gentleman also states, that, the Cashmere Angora goats, are more

robust and more easily nourished than the common goat, and that they

are less capricious and more easily managed in a flock; and from the

experience he has already had, he finds them much more docile than even

sheep. They prefer the leaves of trees, as do all other goats, but

they thrive either on hay or straw, or green fodder, or in meadows;

they also feed with equal facility on heaths, and on the most abrupt

declivities, where the sheep would perish; they do not fear the cold,

and are allowed to remain all the winter in open sheds. For the first

year or two of M. P.’s experiments he thought it prudent to give them

aromatic herbs, from time to time, but during the last six years he has

not found it necessary. He knows not of any particular disease to which

they are subject, his flock never having had any. M. P. arranges they

should kid in March, but occasionally he takes _two_ falls from those

of sufficient strength during the year.

The down commences to grow in September, and developes itself

progressively until the end of March, when it ceases to grow and

detaches itself, unless artificially removed.

To collect the down, he waits the period when it begins to detach

itself, and then the locks of down which separate from the skin with

little force are taken off by hand; the down is removed from the

animals every three or four days; in general it first begins to fall

from the neck and shoulders, and in the following four or five days

from the rest of the body; the collection is completed in the space

of eight or ten days. Sometimes the entire down can be taken from

the animal at one shearing, and almost in an unbroken fleece, when

it begins to loosen. The shearing has the advantage of preserving

more perfectly the parallelisms of the individual filaments, which

much increase the facility of combing and preparing the down for

manufacturing purposes.

CHAPTER V.

BEAVERS-WOOL.

Isidorus Hispalensis--Claudian--Beckmann--Beavers’-wool--Dispersion of

Beavers through Europe--Fossil bones of Beavers.

The passage quoted from Isidore of Seville, in the last chapter, shows

that the ancients made a cloth, the woof of which was of Beavers’-wool

(_de fibri lanâ_), and which was therefore called _Vestis Fibrina_.

By _lana_ he must have meant the very fine wool, which, agreeably to

the observation in the last paragraph, grows under the long hair of

the beaver. Isidore in the same Book, observes, “Fibrinum lana est

animalium, quæ fibros vocant: ipsos et castores existimant.”

The following Epigram of Claudian seems intended, as Beckmann (iv. _p._

223.) supposes, to describe “a worn-out beaver dress, which had nothing

more left of that valuable fur but the name.”

ON A BEAVER MANTLE.

The shadow of its ancient name remains:

But, if no nap of beaver it retains,

A Beaver Mantle it can scarce be nam’d.

The price, however, proves its claim: it cost

Six pounds. Hence, though all lustre it has lost,

Yet, bought so dear, as beaver let it still be fam’d.

Sidonius Apollinaris calls those who used this costly apparel

_castorinati_. _Lib._ v. _Epist._ 7. _p._ 313. _Paris_, 1599, 4_to._

Gerbert, or Gilbert, surnamed the Philosopher, and afterwards Pope

Silvester II., commenting on the qualities of a good Bishop according

to 1 Timothy iii. 1., says in reference to the word “ornatum:”

“Quod si juxta sensum literæ tantûm respiciamus, non aliud,

sacerdotes, quam amictum quæremus clariorem; verbi gratiâ, castorinas

quæremus et sericas vestes: et ille se inter episcopas credet esse

altiorem, qui vestem induerit clariorem. Sed S. Apostolus taliter

se intelligi non vult, quia non carne, &c.”--_De Informatione

Episcoporum, seu De Dignitate Sacerdotali, in ed. Benedict. Opp. S.

Ambrosii, tom._ ii. _p._ 358.

“An upper garment of this cloth was worn by the Emperor Nicephorus II.

at his coronation in the year 936.”--_Beckmann_, _l. c._ § 31.

“This method of manufacturing beavers’-hair,” observes Beckmann, “seems

not to have been known in the time of Pliny; for, though he speaks much

of the _castor_, and mentions _pellis fibrina_ three times, he says

nothing in regard to manufacturing the hair, or to beaver-fur.”

It seems probable, that the Greeks and Romans did not use cloth of

beavers’-wool until the 4th century. In an earlier age the furs and

drugs supplied by beavers were obtained from the countries to the

North of the Euxine Sea. But in the period now under consideration

the intercourse of the Romans with the West of Europe would open a

much more extended sphere for procuring the Vestes Fibrinæ, since we

have traces of the existence of beavers in almost all parts of Europe.

Their appearance in Wales, Scotland, Germany, and the North of Europe

generally, is attested by Giraldus Cambrensis[393].

[393] Topographia Hiberniæ, c. 21, and Itinerarium Cambriæ, l. ii. c. 3.

Dr. Patrick Neill, in a valuable paper on this subject,[394] has

given an account of the bones of recent beavers found in Perthshire

and Berwickshire. They have also been found in Cambridgeshire[395].

We learn from the life of Wulstan[396], that _beaver-furs_, as well

as those of _sables_, _foxes_, and other quadrupeds, were used by the

Anglo-Saxons in very early times for _lining_ their garments. Other

modern authors speak of their occurrence in Austria, Hungary, and

the North of Italy[397]. They are still found in Sweden[398]. Strabo

informs us, that in his time they frequented the rivers of Spain[399].

[394] Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. i. p. 177-187.

[395] Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol. i. part

i. p. 175.

[396] See Extracts in Henry’s History of Britain, vol. iv.

[397] Muratori, Antichità Italiane, tomo ii. p. 110. Napoli, 1783. The

authors, cited by Muratori, are Gervase of Tilbury, and Mathioli.

[398] Travels in Sweden, by Dr. Thomas Thomson, p. 411.

[399] Lib. iii. 163. vol. i. p. 737, ed. Siebenkees.

Buffon says (_Hist. Nat._ _tome_ 26. _p._ 98.), “There are beavers in

Languedoc in the islands of the Rhone, and great numbers of them in

the North of Europe.” “But as human population extends,” he observes,

“beavers, like other animals, are dispersed, become solitary, fugitive,

or conceal themselves in the ground: they cease to unite in bands, to

engage in building or other undertakings.”

“We have been unable to ascertain,” says Cuvier[400], “after the most

scrupulous comparisons, if the Castors or Beavers, which burrow along

the Rhone, the Danube, and the Weser, are different in species from

those of North America, or if they are prevented from building by the

vicinity of man.” The same distinguished author in his work on Fossil

Bones says, “The greater part of our European rivers having formerly

supported beavers, and some of them doing so still, viz. the Gardon and

the Rhone in France, the Danube in Bavaria and Austria, and several

small rivers in Westphalia and Saxony, we cannot be surprised to find

their hones preserved in our mosses, or turbaries.” He then mentions

instances of the heads and teeth of beavers, in the valley of the

Somme in Picardy, in the valley of Tonnis-stein near Andermach, and at

Urdingen on the Rhine in Rhenish Prussia[401].

[400] Règne Animal, vol. iii. p. 65. of Griffith’s Translation.

[401] Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, tome v. partie Ière, p. 55.; partie

2nde, p. 518. See also Annales du Museum d’Hist. Naturelle, tome

xiv. p. 47.

CHAPTER VI.

CAMELS-WOOL AND CAMELS-HAIR.

Camels’-wool and Camels’-hair--Ctesias’ account--Testimony of modern

travellers--Arab tent of Camels’-hair--Fine cloths still made of

Camels’-wool--The use of hair of various animals in the manufacture

of beautiful stuffs by the ancient Mexicans--Hair used by the Candian

women in the manufacture of broidered stuffs--Broidered stuffs of the

negresses of Senegal--Their great beauty.

We are informed by Ctesias, in a fragment of the 10th Book of his

Persic History, that there were camels in a part of Persia, whose hair,

soft as Milesian fleeces, was used to make garments for the priests and

the other potentates[402].

[402] Apollonii Mirabilia xx. Ælian, Hist. An. xvii. 34. Ctesiæ

Fragmenta, a Bähr, p. 224.

John the Baptist wore a garment of camels’-hair; but this must be

supposed to have been coarse. (_Matt._ iii. 4., _Mark_ i. 6.)[403].

This passage of scripture is illustrated by Harmer in the following

observation[404]:

“This hair, Sir J. Chardin tells us (in his MS. note on 1 _Sam._ xxv.

4.) is not shorn from the camels like wool from sheep, but they pull

off this woolly hair, which the camels are disposed to cast off; as

many other creatures, it is well known, change their coats yearly. This

hair is made into cloth now. Chardin assures us the modern dervishes

wear such garments.”

[403] “And the same John had his raiment of camels’-hair, and a

leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild

honey.”--_Matt._ iii. 4, also in Mark:

“And John was clothed with camels’-hair, and with a girdle

of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild

honey.”--_Mark_ i. 6.

[404] Ch. xi. Obs. 83. vol. iv. p. 416. ed. Clarke.

Campbell, the poet, mentions a tent of camels’-hair cloth, which he

saw at an Arab encampment between Oran and Mascara in the kingdom of

Algiers. It was 25 feet in diameter and very lofty. (_Letters from

the South_, 1837, _vol._ ii. _p._ 212.) He also mentions (_vol._ i.

_p._ 161.) that the Kabyles or Berbers, who live in the vicinity of

Algiers, and are descended from the original occupants of the country,

dwell in “tents of camels’-hair.” We are informed that the Chinese

make _carpets_ of the same material[405]. _Coverlets_ of goats’ or

camels’-hair are used by the soldiers in Turkey to sleep under[406].

“The Circassians, when marching, or on a journey, always add to their

other garments a cloak made from camel or goats’-hair, with a hood,

which completely envelopes the whole person. It is impenetrable by

rain; and it forms their bed at night, and protects them from the

scorching sun by day[407].”

[405] China, its Costume, Arts, Manufactures, &c., by Bertin:

translated from the French. London, 1812, vol. iv.

[406] Travels in Circassia, by Edmund Spencer, vol. i. p. 202.

[407] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 219.

The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances; Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving. · 第 18 / 21 章

The first of these authors (_De Re Rustica_, L. ii. _Præf._) mentions