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

302 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE GOAT.
military engines, and to L. v. Dial. ix. for passages from Thucydides,
Arrian, Ammianus, Suidas, Vegetius, Curtius, and
others, proving, that the besieged in cities hung Cilicia over
their towers and walls to obviate the force of the various weap-
ons hurled against them, and especially of the arrows, which
carried fire.
From Exodus we learn*, that the Israelites in the wilderness
among their contributions to the Tabernacle gave goats'-hair,
and that it was spun by w^omen. The spun goats'-hair was
probably used in part to make cords for the tent ; but part
of it at least was woven into the large pieces, called in the Sep-
tuagint " curtains of goats'-hair." Such curtains, or Saga, of
spun goats'-hair seem to have been commonly used for the cov-
ering of tentst.
Cloths of the same kind were used for rubbing horsest The
term for goats'-hair cloth in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syraic, is
pn or pm, i. e. Shac, or Sac, translated SAKKOS in the Septuagint,
and Saccus in the Vulgate version of the Scriptures. The
Latin Sagum, appears to have had the same origin. In Eng-
lish we have Sack and Shag; scarcely differing from the orien-
tal and ancient terms either in sound or sense.
* " And thou shalt make curtains of goats'-liair to be a covering upon the tab-
ernacle : eleven curtains shalt thou make. The length of one curtain shall be
thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits : and the eleven curtains
shall be all of one measure. And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves,
and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the fore-
front of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of tlie one
curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain
which coupleth the second. And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put
the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. And
the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that re-
maineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle. And a cubit on the one
side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the
curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on thb side and
on that side, to cover it."—Ex. xxvi. 7-13.
t " And he made curtains of goats'-hair for the tent over the tabernacle : eleven
curtains he made them. The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four
cubits was the breadth of one curtain : the eleven curtains were of one size."
Ex. xxxvi. 14, 15.
X Vegetii Ars Veter. I. i. c. 42.
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