Copy 1, Volume 2

The history of the manners and customs of ancient Greece / By J.A. St. John.

  • James Augustus St. John
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the manners and customs of ancient Greece / By J.A. St. John. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bers of their flocks by separate names: The sheep “hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by “ name and leadeth them out. And when he put- “ teth forth his own sheep he goeth before them, “ and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” We likewise find traces of the same custom in Sicily, Crete, and various other parts of Greece, where goats, and heifers, and sheep, enjoyed the privilege of a name, as Cynoetha, Amalthea, and others. In later times it was judged preferable, that the flock should follow their shepherds by the eye, for which reason they were accustomed to stuff* their ears with wool.^ To prevent rams from but¬ ting, they used to bore a hole ^ through their horns near the roots. Sheep were generally shorn ^ during the month of May, and after the wool had been clipped, they were commonly anointed with wine, oil, and the juice of bitter lupins.^ In remoter ages the practice prevailed of plucking off the wool in¬ stead of shearing it; and this barbarous method, at once so painful to the sheep and so laborious to the shepherd, had not been entirely abandoned in the age of Pliny. ^ It was a rule among the pastoral tribes, that the number of their flocks should be uneven.^ The shepherds of Greece be¬ stowed the name of Sekitai,^ (from (jr]zog an enclo¬ sure) upon lambs taken early from the ewes, and 1 Geop. xviii. 4. 2 Ferocia ejus coliibetur cornu juxta aurem terebrato. Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 72. Cf. Geopon. viii. 5. To the same purpose writes also Columella :—Epicharmus Sy- racusanus qui pecudum medici- nas diligentissime conscripsit af- firmat pugnacem arietem mitigari terebra secundum auriculas fora- tis cornibus qua curvantur in tlexu. Columell. vii. S. 3 It is observed by the ancients that long lank wool indicated strength in the sheep, curly wool the contrary. Geop. xviii. i, seq. 4 Geop. xviii. 8. ^ Duerat quibusdam in locis vellendi mos. Plin. Nat. Hist, vii. 73. Velice unde essent plures accepi caussas inquies quod ibi pastores palatini ex ovibus ante tonsuram inventam vellere lanam sint soliti, ex quo vellera dicuntur. Varr. de Ling. Lat. iv. Cf. De Re Rust. ii. 11. Isidor. xix. 27. ® Geop. xviii. 2. Schol. Theoc. i. 9.