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ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE GOAT. 299
flock crowded down the broken road leading to the fold, follow-
ed by their grotesque-looking shepherd and his rough dogs, the
pet-kids crowding round their master and answering to his
call, we could not help thinking of the antique manners de-
scribed by the poets, and represented in the pictures of Herculaneum
and Pompeii.
" The goats are the most useful domestic animals. Here no
other cheese or milk is tasted. Besides, the ricotta, a kind of
curd, and junkets, are made of goats'-milk, and, with bread
serve many of the country people for food*."
From Athenseust we learn the superior excellence of the goats
of Scyros and Naxos.
Virgil (/. c.), after mentioning the use of goats for food, goes
on to show thek contributions to the weaver.
Cloth'd in their shaven beards and hoary hair.
Fence of the ocean spray and nightly air,
The miserable seaman breasts the main,
And camps uninjur'd press the marshy plam.
Sotheby's Translation.
The last line of this passage of Virgil is quoted by Columella
(L. vii. 6.) in speaking of the utility of the he-goat
For he himself is shorn " for the use of camps and to make coverings for
wretched sailors."
Virgil, moreover, has here followed Varro, who writes thus
As tlie sheep yields to man wool for clothing, so the goat furnishes hair for the
use of sailors, and to make ropes for military engines, and vessels for artificers.
***** The goats are shorn in a great part of Phrygia, because there
they have long shaggy hair. Cilicia (i. e. hair-cloths), and other things of the
same kind, are commonly imported from that country. The name Cilicia is
* Three Months passed in the Mountains cast of Rome, by Maria Graham
(Lady Calcott), p. 36. 55, 5G.
The same writer says, that " black sheep are rather encouraged here for the
wool," and that " tlie clothing of the friars is of this imdyed wool." p. 55.
t Quoted in Chapter I. p. 236. jElian bears testimony to the same fact, observ-
ing, that the cows of Epirus were said to yield the greatest quantity of milk, and
the goats of Scyros. Hist. Anim. 1. iii. cap. 33.
From Tournefort, Sonnini, and other modem travellers we learn, that both
ScjTos and Naxos are very rocky and mountainous, and that they still produce
goats. See also Dapper, Description des Isles de I'Archipel, p. 256. 350.
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