PART SECOND.
ORIGIN AND ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE SHEEP.
CHAPTER I.
SHEEP'S WOOL.
SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS—ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.
The Shepherd Boy—Sheep-breeding in Scythia and Persia—Mesopotamia and
Syria—In Idumæa and Northern Arabia—In Palestine and Egypt—In Ethiopia
and Libya—In Caucasus and Coraxi—The Coraxi identified with the
modern Caratshai—In Asia Minor, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Samos, &c.—In Caria
and Ionia—Milesian wool—Sheep-breeding in Thrace, Magnesia, Thessaly,
Eubœa, and Bœotia—In Phocis, Attica, and Megaris—In Arcadia—Worship
of Pan—Pan the god of the Arcadian Shepherds—Introduction of his worship
into Attica—Extension of the worship of Pan—His dances with the nymphs—Pan
not the Egyptian Mendes, but identical with Faunus—The philosophical
explanation of Pan rejected—Moral, social, and political state of the Arcadians—Polybius
on the cultivation of music by the Arcadians—Worship of Mercury
in connection with sheep-breeding and the wool trade—Present state of Arcadia—Sheep-breeding
in Macedonia and Epirus—Shepherds' dogs—Annual
migration of Albanian shepherds.
THE SHEPHERD BOY.
The rain was pattering o'er the low thatch'd shed
That gave us shelter. There was a shepherd boy,
Stretching his lazy limbs on the rough straw,
In vacant happiness. A tatter'd sack
Cover'd his sturdy loins, while his rude legs
Were deck'd with uncouth patches of all hues,
Iris and jet, through which his sun-burnt skin
Peep'd forth in dainty contrast. He was a glory
For painter's eye; and his quaint draperies
Would harmonize with some fair sylvan scene,
