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

PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 227
lions that the Thebans slew a ram once a year on occasion of
a particular ceremony, which he describes (ii. 42. 46.). The
testimony of Strabo and Plutarch, though differing in some
particulars from that of Herodotus, is to the same general ef-
fect. Aristotle {I. c.) mentions, that the sheep of Egypt were
larger than those of Greece.
But, although these passages show, that sheep were bred in
Egypt, we think it evident that their number was very limited.
Egyptian wool cannot have been of the least importance as an
article of commerce. What was produced must also have been
consumed in the country. For, although the chief material for
the clothing of the Egyptians was linen, and they were forbid-
den to be buried in woollen or to use it in the temples, yet He-
rodotus (ii. 81.) states, that on ordinary occasions they wore a
garment of white wool over their hnen shirt. They also used
wool for embroidering. According to PUny* the Egyptian wool
was coarse and of a short staple. Tertullian records a saying
of the Egyptians, that Mercury invented the spinning of wool
in their countryt.
Strabo in an instructive manner contrasts the Ethiopians with
tlie Egyptians. Having observed, that the boundary between
the two nations was the smaller cataract above S3^ene and
Elephantine, he says, that the Ethiopians led for the most part
a pastoral Ufe without resources, both on account of their in-
temperate climate and the poverty of their soil, and also because
they were remote from the civilized world ;
whereas the Egyp-
tians had always Uved in a refined manner and under a regu-
lar government, settled in fixed habitations, and cultivating
philosophy, agriculture, and the artst Thus do we find the
nomad life recurring immediately to the south of Egypt. Stra-
bo further states, that the Ethiopian sheep were small, and in-
stead of being woolly were hairy like goats, on which account
the people wore skins instead of woollen cloth §. That these
• Hist Nat. I. viii. 73. See Appendix A. t Do Pallio, c. 3.
X Strabo, 1. xvii. c. 1. § 3. p. 476, 477. ed. Siebenkees.
§ Cap. 2. § 1. 3. p. 621. 626. Strabo's account is illustrated and confirmed by
the traveller, Dr. Shaw, who describes a variety of sheep m the interior of Africa