The History of Sheep

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10, 9 March 1905, Page 15

The History of Sheep

Of all domesticated animals the slheep (says ' Outwig ') has, from time immemorial, been most closely associated with mankind. An erudite author sixty years ago, having laboriously collated an assortment of allusions to sheep made by sacred and profane writers, concluded that the history of these animals is so interwo\en with the history of man that they never existed in a wild state at all. Biblical history from the time of Abel is full of allusions to the flocks which formed tihe chwf possesses of the Jewish 'people ana their neighbors. The spoils of war and the tribute of v,assal kings largely consisted of sheep. Thus we read that Mesha, King of Moab, was a sheep master, a nfl, rendered unto the King of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams with the wool. Moses, after his victory over the Midianites, obtained as loot no less than 675,0,00 slheep, and long before the Christian era sheep were cultivated in Western Europe. Spain and Italy possessed them from an unknown period, although long after Rome was fourided the inhabitants had not learned to shear the fleece, and, -until the time of Pliny, the practice of plucking it from the skin was not wholly abandoned.