or Zoological Recollections. 395 



THE SHEEP. 



Of equal antiquity in a domesticated state with the ox, 

 forming the pastoral wealth of the children of Adam, and the 

 earliest oblation of grateful acknowledgment in sacrifice : 

 for the accepted offering of Abel consisted in the firstlings of 

 his flock (Genesis, iv. 4.) ; and a hundred and twenty thou- 

 sand were sacrificed at the dedication of the temple by Solo- 

 mon. (1 Kings, viii. 63.) 



Of an animal so serviceable to man, and so constantly 

 before his eyes, many familiar allusions have become con- 

 sequently popular and common. From his mild and un- 

 meaning aspect *, a vacant or silly look is said to be sheepish ; 

 and a swain, when he affects tender glances to the village 

 maiden, is said to cast sheep's eyes at her : and we say of a 

 man unworthily tricked of his property, that he has been 

 fleeced, f A tyrant who exercises his cruelties under the 

 garb of gentleness is called a wolf in sheep's clothing. 



The horn of the ram was an early instrument of martial 

 and ceremonial music, at whose sound the walls of Jericho 

 fell down (Joshua, vi.) : and the jubilee of old (Leviticus, xxv.) 

 was ushered in with the sound of rams' horns, or the jubilee 

 trumpets ; for the word jobul, or yobul, in Hebrew means a 

 ram : so our curved and sonorous field instrument is called a 

 horn. The ram was chosen by the angel as a substitute for 

 Isaac, whom his father Abraham was commanded to sacrifice 

 in proof of his obedience. (Genesis, xxii. 13.) Jacob, for a 

 wife, kept 'sheep twice seven years '(Genesis, xxix.); and 

 Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. (Exodus, 

 iii. 1.) Jason is fabled to have carried away the golden fleece 

 from Colchis, in the ship Argo, by the help of the sorceress 

 Medea, as representative of the extension of commerce, and 

 the transfer of the arts ; and the fleece of Gideon was the 

 miraculous instrument by which he had assurance of the 

 victory of the forces of Israel, led by him, over the Midianites, 

 who then oppressed Israel. (Judges, vi. 33 — 40.) 



In the reign of Nero the converts to Christianity were 



* [It seems to be generally agreed that the face of the sheep is not 

 expressive of any greater sentiment than that of mildness ; but Henry 

 Selwyn, in a small volume of published poems, has a tenderly sentimental 

 heroine, who, in her sensitive exercise of this feeling, does 



try a character to trace 



In every sheep's unconscious face 



and it may be remarked that the various faces observable in a flock of sheep 

 exhibit a considerable variety of expression.] 



f [" Tiberius rescripsit praesidibus provinciarum onerandas esse tribute 

 provincias scribentibus : boni pastoris esse, tondere pecus, non deglubere."j 



