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

PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 233
We cannot survey the now deserted Iscuria without observ-
ing, what a mournful contrast the Euxine presents under the
sway of both Russia and Turkey to the useful energy, which
more than 2000 years ago promoted life and the arts of Ufe,
and brought into close and peaceful contact the most refined
and the most uncultivated nations, under the direction of the
lonians of Miletus. The beauty, the bravery, the activity,
and the independence of a highland clan still represent the skill
and enterprize of the ancient Coraxi ; but the commerce,
which rewarded their industry, and extended their reputation
through the civilized world, has sunk into insignificance.
Besides the above notices of the Coraxi in Strabo and Tzet-
zes we find little said concerning the breeding of sheep in this
part of Asia. Aristotle, however, mentions the sheep of " Pon-
tus near Scythia," and says that they were without horns*.
The Melanchlseni also, who are mentioned by Herodotus in his
account of the Scythian tribes, and who Uved to the north of
the Coraxi, were so called, because they wore black palls.
There can be no doubt, that the use and management of
sheep were known from the earliest times throughout nearly
the whole of Asia Minor, and that some nations in this region
had attained to a superiority in the art before the settlement in
it of the Grecian colonists.
The imagery of the Homeric poems (supposed to be written
about 900 B. C.) affords abundant evidence of these facts.
They continually mention shepherds, who had the care of
sheep, as well as goat-herds, who managed goats. They speak
of the folds, in which the flocks were secured at night to pre-
serve them from the attacks of wild beasts. The dangers to
which the flocks were exposed from both wolves and lions, are
in accordance with similar expressions and incidents in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, arising from the existence of
the same ravenous and destructive quadrupeds in Palestine.
Also, the language both of the Scriptures and of the Homeric
poems is precisely the same, in which the king ruling his peo-
ple is compared to the shepherd tending his flock, or to the
* Hist. Anim. viii. 28.
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