Domestic sheep, although commonly regarded as the progeny of one particular wild species, are probably an instance, among many similar, where the wisdom of Providence has provided subsistence for man in different regions by bestowing the domesticating and submissive instincts upon the different species of animals which the human family might find in their wanderings; for it is certain that even the American argidi can be rendered tractable, and that the Corsican miismon will breed with the common sheep. The normal animal, from which all or the greater part of the Western domestic races are assumed to be descended, is still found wild in the high mountain regions of Persia, and is readily distinguished from two other wild species bordering on the same re- gion. What breeds the earliest shepherd tribes reared in and about Palestine can now be only inferred from negative characters; yet they are sufficient to show that they were the same, or nearly so, as the common horned variety of Egypt and continental Europe: in general white, and occasionally black, although there was on the LTjiper Nile a speckled race ; and so early as the time of Aristotle the Arabians possessed a rufous breed, another with a very long tail, and, above all, a broad-tailed sheep, which at present is commonly de- nominated the Syrian. These three varieties are said to be of African origin, the red hairy in particular hav- ing all the characteristics to mark its descent from the wild Oris tragelaphus or barbatus, or hebsh of the Arabian and Egyptian mountains. Flocks of the an- cient breed, derived from the Bedawin, are now extant in Syria, with little or no change in external characters, chiefly the broad-tailed and the common horned white, often witii black and white about the face and feet, the tail somewhat thicker and longer than the European.
The sheep of Syria and Palestine are the broad-tail {Oi'is laticaiidatus), and a variety of the common sheep of this country {Oi-is aries) called the Bidowin, accord-
Broad-tailed Sheep.
SHEEP
641
SHEEP
ing to Russell (A leppo, ii, 147). The brocad-tailed kind has long been reared in Syria. Aristotle, who lived more than 2000 years ago, expressly mentions Syrian sheep with tails a cubit wide. This or another variety of the species is also noticed by Heroilotus (iii, 113) as occurring in Arabia. The fat tail of the sheep is prob- ably alluded to in Lev. iii, 9; vii. 3, etc., as the fat and the whole rump that was to be taken off hard by the backbone, and was to be consumed on the altar. "The carcass of one of these sheep, without including the head, feet, entrails, and skin, generally weighs from lifty to sixty pounds, of which the tail makes up fifteen pounds; but some of the largest breed, that have been fattened with care, will sometimes weigh 150 pounds, the tail alone composing a third of the whole weight. This tail — a broad and flattish appendage — has the ap- pearance of a large and loose mass of tlesh or fat upon the rianp and about the root of the tail; and from the odd motion which it receives when the animal walks, one would suppose it connected to the animal's body only by the skin with which it is covered. ... In the Egyptian variety this tail is quite pendulous and broad throughout, but in the Syrian variety the tail narrows almost to a point towards the end, and the extremity is turned up. This is a great convenience to the animal. The sheep of the extraordinary size mentioned before are very rare, and usually kept in yards, so that they are in little danger of injuring the tail as they walk. But in the fields, in order to prevent injury from the bushes, the shepherds in several places of Syria fix a thin piece of board on the under-part (which is not, like the rest, covered with wool), and to this board small wheels are sometimes added. . . . The tail is entirely composed of a substance between marrow and fat, serv- ing very often in the kitchen in the place of butter, and, cut into small pieces, makes an ingredient in various dishes; when the animal is young it is little inferior to the best marrow" (Kitto, P/ii/s. Hist, of Palest, p. 306; see also Thomson, ut sup. i, 178).
The whole passage in Gen. xxx which bears on the sui)ject of Jacob's stratagem with Laban's sheep is in- voh'ed in considerable (lerplexity, and Jacob's conduct in this matter has been severely and uncompromisingly condemned by some writers. We touch upon the ques- tion brierty in its zoological bearing. It is altogether impossible to account for the complete success which attended Jacob's device of setting peeled rods before the ewes anil she-goats as they came to drink in the water- ing-troughs, on natural grounds. The Greek fathers, for the most part, ascribe the result to the direct operation of the Deity, whereas Jerome and the Latin fathers re- gard it as a mere natural operation of the imagination, adducing as illustrations in point various devices that have been resorted to by the ancients in the cases of mares, asses, etc. (see Oppian, Ci/neg. i, 327, 357; Pliny, //. X. vii, 10, and the passages from Quintilian, Hip- pocrates, and Galen, as cited by Jerome, Grotius, and Bochart). None of the instances cited by Jerome and others are exact parallels with that in question. Tlie quotations adduced, with the exception of those which speak of painted images set before Spartan women iiite?- concipiemium, refer to cases in which living animals themselves, and not reflections of inanimate objects, were the cause of some marked peculiarity in the fo'tus. Kosenmiiller, however (*S'c//o/. ad. loc), cites Hastfeer {Be Re Oviaria, German version, p. 17, 30, 43, 46, 47) as a writer by whom the contrarj' opinion is confirmed. Even granting the general truth of these instances, and acknowledging the curious effect which peculiar sights through some nervous influence do occasionally pro- duce in the fietus of many animals, j-et we must agree with the Greek fathers and ascribe the production of Jacob's spotted sheep and goats to divine agency. The whole question has been carefully considered by Nitsch- mann {De Coryln Jacohi, in Thes. Nov. Theol. Phil, i, 202-20()), from whom we quote the following passage: "Fatemur itaque, cum Vossio aliisque piis viris, illam IX.— S s