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

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222 SHEEP BREEDING AND
sheep of Syria, mentions a variety with tails, which were a
cubit broad* ; and PUny in addition to this circumstance asserts
generally the abundance of the Syrian woolf. Probably the
part of Syria appropriated more especially to the breeding of
sheep, was the eastern part, which bordered on Arabia, and
was distinguished by the same natural features.
In no part of the ancient world docs sheep-breeding appear
to have been more cultivated than in that which we are now
approaching. Here were the Moabites, among whom it was a
royal occupation^ and, as it appears, the chief source of the
revenues of the sovereign : for it is said in 2 Kings iii. 4.
" Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep-master, and rendered unto
the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs and an hun-
dred thousand rams with the wool." Here on occasion of a
war, which the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of
Manasseh, whose territory was to the east of Jordan, carried on
against the Hagarites, they obtained as part of their booty
250,000 sheep. ^' (I. Chron. v. 21.) Here was Idumsea, in a
part of which Job is represented to have dwelt, being possessed
of 7,000, and afterwards of 14,000 sh?ep (Job i. 3. xhi. 12.)
and we have a beautiful allusion to the pastoral habits of the
same country in the language of consolation employed b}- the
prophet Micah (ii. 12.) ; " I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all
of thee ; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel ; I will
put them together as the sheep of Bosrah, as the flock in
the midst of their fold : they shall make great noise by
reason of the multitude of men." Here also were the Midian-
ites, whose flocks were so vast, that the sheep taken from them
by Moses after his victory amounted to 675,000. (Num.
xxxi. 32.) Jethro, the priest of Midian, was himself the owner
of a numerous flock, tended by his seven daughters, whom
Moses assisted in watering them, when the neighboring shep-
lierds rudely attempted to drive them from the well. He after-
wards married one of them, and was employed by the father as
his shepherd ; and, having occasion according to the practice of
* Hist. Animalium, 1. viii. cap. 28.
t Plinii Hist. Nat. 1. viii. c. 75. ed. Bipoiit. See Appendix A.
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