The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 219
animals has, from the earhest dawn of human history, formed
a striking feature in the condition of man. Of the materials
employed by tlie ancients for making cloth, by far the most im-
portant was the wool of sheep. We are able to trace with great
probability the process of sheep-breeding and of the use of wool
for weaving. Among the bones of quadrupeds, found in an-
cient caves throughout Europe, we cannot find on consulting
the works of Cuvier, Buckland, and De la Beche, that remains
of sheep have ever been discovered. This fact affords some
reason for presuming, tliat the sheep is not a native of Europe,
but has been introduced there by man. *--
It appears to have been a general opinion among Zoologists,
that the Argali, or Ovis Amnion of Linnaius, which inhabits
in vast numbers the elevated regions of Central Asia, is the
primitive stock of the whole race of domesticated sheep. Agree-
ably to this supposition we find, that from the earliest times the
inhabitants of Tartary, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine,
and the North of Arabia, have been addicted to pastoral em-
ployments. The tribes of wandering shepherds, which fre-
quent those countries, are descended from progenitors, who led
the same life thousands of years ago, and whose manners and
habits are preserved to the present day with scarcely the slight-
est change.
As might be expected, we have little precise information re-
specting the Scythians, who inhabited the elevated plains of
inner Asia. Some of their hordes are distinguished by Herod-
otus, Strabo, and others, under the name of Nomadic or />a5-
toral Scythians ; and that this denomination was understood
to imply, that they tended sheep as well as larger cattle may
be inferred from what Herodotus says of their use of felt (See
Appendix B.). Strabo, moreover, says of a particular tribe of
the Massagetse, that they had " few sheep," which implies that
the rest were rich in flocks ; and of another tribe he says,
"They do not till the ground, but derive their sustenance from
sheep and fish, after the manner of the Nomadic Scythians*.^'
But a much more distinct account of the manners of this people
—
* Strabo, 1. xi. cap. 8. p. 486. ed. Siebenkees.