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

PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 291
Odyssey {p. 180-182.) a sacrifice is made and a feast prepared
of sheep, goats, hogs, and a cow. Also in Od. v. 3. 250. sheep
are sacrificed and furnish part of a feast. In order to ratify a
treaty between the Greeks and Trojans, the former sacrificed a
lamb of the male sex to Jupiter ; the latter one of the male
sex and white to the Sun, and another of the female sex and
black to the Earth. (II. y. 103, 104.) Sheep are sacrificed to
Apollo at Delphi in Euripides, Ion, I. 230. 380. The rare in-
stances of the use of sheep for food or sacrifice by the Egyptians
have been already noticed.
But, although sheep, both old and young, male and female,
were sacrificed to the objects of rehgious worship and on other
festive occasions were eaten, especially by the rich and great,
yet their chief use was to supply clothing, and the nourishment
they yielded consisted in their milk and the cheese made from
it, rather than in their flesh.
This fact is illustrated by the words of Solomon, formerly
quoted, and in which he speaks of lambs for clothing and
goat's 7nilk for food. In hke manner St. Paul says (1 Cor. ix.
7.), "Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit
thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of
the flock ?"
Varro thinks, that sheep were employed for the use of man be-
fore any other animal on account of their usefulness and placid-
ity, and he represents their use to consist in supplying cheese and
milk for food, fleeces and skins for clothing*. In Uke manner
Columella in his account of the use of sheep (vii. 2.) says, they af-
forded the chief materials for clothing. In treating of their use
for food, he mentions only their milk and cheese. Pliny refers
to the employment of sheep both for sacrifices and for clothing.
He also remarks, that as the ox is principally useful in obtain-
ing food, to wit, by ploughing and other agricultural processes,
the sheep, on the other hand, supplies materials for clothingt.
The fact, that wool was among the ancients by far the most
common material for making clothes, accounts for the various
* De Re Rustica, 1. ii. cap. i. t See Appendix A.